Laughter is the best treatment
by Steampunk Wilson
Summary: 'Stitches hurt like a bitch. Almost as much as the wounds had when he's first got them.' Same kids, same backstories, only they're not in a summer camp, they're all in a kid's ward at the hospital, suffering, recovering, having a laugh. Not one shots, just a regular story. I'm giving each character their chapter in the limelight, no one gets left out in my fics! Whatever :)
1. Stitches

**Hello fellow viewers of Camp Camp :) Steampunk Wilson here. I am currently writing another fic for this fandom, and two for Ninjago, but I've had this idea for a while, so why not start to write it?**

 **For clarification, here's how old I think all the campers are: Max: 10 (duh), Neil: 12, Nikki: 9, Space Kid: 8, Dolph: 7, Harrison: 12, Nerris: 11, Preston: 13, Ered: 15, Nerf: 15. Plus others: Pikeman: 17, Snake: 14, Petrol: 16, Sasha: 11, Erin: 13, Tabii: 11, David: 24 (duh), Gwen: 25**

 **You may or not agree. They'll all be those ages in this story**

 **I'll take this opportunity to advertise, my other fic: Which Camp do I belong to? It has a few followers, but could always do with more.**

 **Little bit of warning: Will contain sensitive topics such as suicide, child abuse and cancer. Plus deep feels, I'm the kind of author who puts a lot of emotion into their character's stories and s***. And swearing, 'cos, you know, it's Camp Camp :)**

 **That'll be it for now. If you like it, review :)**

 **Have a nice day :)**

God, stitches hurt like a bitch. Almost as bad as the wounds had stung when he's first got them. Max picked at the edge of his bandages in boredom as the doctor in front of him shifted through the paperwork. He seemed too beefy to be a doctor, and his hair was grey, but precariously styled. Max didn't like him. He didn't really like anyone, but he especially not this guy.

"So, Maxwell..." The man rolled his tongue around his mouth as he said Max's name.

"Max." The kid said stiffly.

"Max." The doctor muttered. "Your stiches were a success, but you did lose a lot of blood in the incident, and you will need a special treatment for a few weeks..."

"So what?" Max muttered. "Can't I just bugger off home already?"

"Treatment that requires you staying in our care." The doctor finished. Max realised what this meant, and scowled.

"Dammit." He muttered, kicking the desk that separated the pair of them. "What do my parents say about this?" He demanded, desperate for an excuse to get the fuck out of here, even if it required seeing his parents even more than he already had to.

"Your parents have already been contacted." The doctor explained. "They have no problem with you staying here." Max sighed.

"Of course not." He muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Max muttered, fixing his eyes on the doctor's nametag. Head Doctor: C. Campbell. What a stupid name.

"I sent for the head nurse of Children's Ward One." Campbell told Max. "He should be here, ah, speak of the devil." The door behind Max opened and he turned to see who this man was. He saw a young man with red hair and a similar white coat to Campbell. His nametag read: D. Campbell. He was smiling too widely for Max's liking.

"Ah, hello David." Campbell said brightly. "Right on time, as always."

"Right you are, dad." David said three times as brightly. Max grinned a little.

"So you're his dad then?" He asked with mockery in his voice.

"Well, I adopted Davey when he was around your age, Max." Campbell said. "But never mind about that." He looked uncomfortable. "Davey here will take you up to the ward." He motioned for the pair to leave, already turning his attention back to some papers on his desk. Max sighed and slid off his chair, sloping off toward David, who smiled down at him. Max did not smile back.

"Alright, Max, our newest patient!" David exclaimed as they left the office. Max picked at his bandages, causing David to frown down at him.

"I don't think you should be doing that Max. Those bandages may be annoying, but they sure will help you heal!" Max scowled and shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans. David approached a line of wheelchairs, but Max stopped walking.

"Absolutely fucking not!" He snarled.

"Hey, language!" David noted.

"I can walk fine." Max snapped. "Leave it!"

"Oh, alright." David sighed. Then he smiled again, making Max's head flushed with annoyance. "But you'll need to save your strength, you know."

Max rolled his eyes and they walked the rest of the way in silence. David approached a blank, white door with a simple, metal nameplate. Children's Ward One. Down the corridor, there was Children's Ward Two, and an office at the end.

"I'm not the only nurse here," David said in his usual, cheerful tone.

"Thank God." Max muttered.

"We also have Gwen, you'll get on with her swimmingly." David said as he opened the door. Max expected a neat layout of beds with sick kids in them, all clean and calm and sterile. This place instantly proved him wrong. It was a scene of hospitalised chaos in a normal looking room, long with ten beds and a window at the end and a door at the other end. A female nurse was shouting as a turquoise haired girl ran around the floor, and other kids whooped at her in delight.

"Go Nikki go!"

"Be free!"

"Crush the authority!"

"Nikki!" The nurse yelled. "Get back into bed right this instant!"

"Why?" The girl called from the window. "Space Kid's not in bed, so why should I be?" The nurse gasped and span round to see a young, brown haired boy wearing navy blue pyjamas decorated with rocket ships and crescent moons. He had a bandage wrapped tight around his head and was bouncing on his bed, shouting something about space.

"For fuck's sake." The nurse muttered. David gasped and hurried forwards, taking hold of the boy and sitting him back in bed.

"Come on Space Kid, your head isn't going to heal by doing that." Meanwhile, the female nurse manage to catch hold of the girl and wrestled her back into the bed opposite the boy's. "Stay put!" She shouted. Nikki laughed.

"The revolution has only been temporarily deterred, my friends. One day, freedom will be ours!" The kids all laughed and cheered, then seemed to settle down again, as if this was daily routine.

"What the gosh darn heck happened, Gwen?" David asked the female nurse, Gwen, Max guessed. Gwen sighed.

"Just, the usual. Space Kid trying to get to space and Nikki being a little-" David shushed her.

"Gwen! And today we have our new patient as well.." He pointed to Max. Gwen sighed.

"Oh yeah, Maximus or something like that."

"Max." Max corrected her. Gwen sighed again.

"Right, David, give him his bed." She headed off into the small office that Max hadn't noticed before. David scanned the ward.

"Alright, last spare bed Max!" He pointed to the one...

Bang on next to Nikki. Max didn't want to spend three weeks next to a complete psychopath, or a girl. But it looked like he would have to do both. Max shuffled over and sat on the bed, feeling multiple pairs of eyes following him.

"I'll get you some pyjamas until your parents send your stuff." David said, and went into the office. Nikki instantly turned to Max with a wild grin. For the first time, max noticed that her arms were both in casts, a few signatures scrawled all over them.

"Hey, I'm Nikki!" She exclaimed. "The troublemaker. You're Max, right?"

"Yeah." Max grunted, glad someone had got it right. He looked away from Nikki, to his right, the other bed next to him. A boy with brown curly hair sat there, playing some game on his phone. He looked relatively normal, except from wild looking red patches all over his face. His arms were bandaged, like Max's, only less tight, and they looked to be of a different sort.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Max exclaimed. The boy sighed and looked up from his game.

"I was doing a very basic scientific demonstration, when I was distracted, added Hydrogen Nitrate instead on Hydrogen Carbonate, and the whole thing blew up in my face." He said. "Go on, laugh."

"Dude, I don't even know what those are." Max told him. "But, ouch."

The boy nodded. "I'm Neil." He said. "Max, right?"

"Right." Max told him.

"So, spill the beans, dammit!" Nikki said excitedly. "What happened to you?"

Max had prepared for this. He held up his bandaged forearms.

"I fell on some broken glass." He told them.

"What were you doing near broken glass?" Nikki asked.

This, Max hadn't prepared for. He lowered his arms.

"Oh, er, my little brother smashed a window with a baseball, and then I tripped over that baseball, and fell onto the glass."

"So you tripped on a baseball?" Neil asked. Max nodded, wishing he had his long sleeved hoodie right about now, but it was still in his closet at home.

"I smashed a window like that before." Nikki told him. "My mum was well mad at me."

"My mum was mad at my brother." Max lied.

"I just fell out of a tree and broke both my arms, plus two ribs, they're all better now." Nikki said. "But Neil was trying to make an explosive, when it exploded!" She laughed. Max gasped and looked at Neil, who looked embarrassed.

"Yeah, and it still hurts like hell." He said.

"That's crazy!" Max exclaimed.

"If you think that's crazy, check this!" Nikki leaned over to whisper to him. "Over there, opposite you." Max looked at the bed opposite. A young boy sat there, propped up on some pillows, with neat, dark brown hair and a pale face. He was drawing something in a sketchbook, frowning slightly.

"That's Dolph." Nikki whispered. "He was SHOT!" This surprised Max.

"No way!" He whispered in awe. Nikki nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, he came in one night, and he was in the operating theatre for like, twelve hours or something. That was a few weeks ago, I was in here with a broken leg or something similar, I'm always finding myself back here, but he-"

"I'm just here, I can hear you!" Dolph said in an obnoxious tone, not looking up from his sketchbook. He had a thick German accent. Nikki instantly ducked her head away from him.

Max edged forward in his bed to get a good look at the other patients. Closest to the office was Nikki, then himself, then Neil, then a boy with a brown bowl cut who didn't seem to have any bandages of anything, but a small drip fed into his arm. He was reading a very thick book entitled: The complete works of Shakespeare. Next to him was a teenage girl with long, blonde hair, streaked with dark pink. She was also on her phone, and in a full body cast. Max winced and looked at the other side of the ward. The space kid was opposite Nikki, then Dolph, then a black girl wearing a wizard's hat who was playing a game of D&D on a small table with the boy in the next bed, who also had a drip. He wore a large top hat, covering all his hair. A teenage boy with bright red hair was next to him, who appeared to be reading a porn magazine. Max wondered if this boy would let him borrow it.

"Yep, that's our ward." Nikki said as she noticed Max looking. She went round in a clockwise direction. "That's Preston, he's a drama queen, and Ered, she's just SO COOL, and then Nurf, no one really talks to him, I heard he got stabbed though, (Max gasped) Then Harrison, and Nerris, you already know Dolph, and then that's Space Kid."

"Space Kid? What's his real name?" Nikki shrugged.

"Only the doctors really know, but everyone just calls him Space Kid."

Max sighed as David appeared with some folded, white pyjamas.

"Here you go Max." He said brightly. "The door over there is the toilet, you can go get changed." Max slid out of bed and shuffled over to the toilet. It was a full disabled bathroom, which made sense. He sighed. White didn't suit his dark complexion, and the pyjamas smelled funny. He looked down at his bandages, wondering just how long he'd be able to last in here.

 **So, that's chapter one. What do you think? :)**


	2. The Biscuits in the Office

**Sorry for the delay, but I'm writing four stories at the moment, and you know, one thing at a time! Thank you so much to Shangdi zhi for reviewing, I love it when people do that! :)**

The rest of the day was a long and continuous one, and Max had arrived at only one o'clock. He felt uncomfortable and bare in his borrowed pyjamas, and he was bored. The other kids all had phones or books to entertain themselves with, with the exception of Space Kid and Nikki, who had a toy rocket and old newspapers with crosswords. Max had struck up a conversation with Neil about recent politics, but the other boy had had to be taken away to get the dressing on his burns changed, and still wasn't back.

"Neil always takes forever!" Nikki informed him when he asked. She stabbed a lady's picture in the newspaper with her biro pen, laughing a little. It's because the burns on his arms are always SUPER painful, like, third degree or something, and he doesn't want to look weak in front of the others."

"Naturally." Max agreed. He stared around at the dingy ward. It had a plain wooden floor and plain whitewashed walls with a few paintings on them, trying to make the place less dingy, Max guessed. There was a lake, surrounded by trees and mountains above Nurf's bed, a colourful picture of boxes and boxes of cookies above Preston, and a gloomy looking Platypus above Dolph. Max wondered about the kid. Could he really have been shot? Who by?

"Oh look, Neil's back!" Nikki exclaimed, and Max looked towards the door to see a stressed looking Gwen wheeling in a bored looking Neil. Max noted that his eyes were a little red, but made nothing of it.

"What time is it?" Neil asked as hid bed was slid into place beside Max. Max looked at his watch.

"About four."

"Urgh, really? I'm starving!" Neil sighed. He then grinned, and leaned over to Max.

"You can go up and about on your feet, right?" He asked.

"Err, yeah."

"Good. Only a few of us can, you see. Nerris used to go, but lately, she's getting even more stingy about us using her for that, and she doesn't like to be interrupted in the middle of one of her stupid board games."

"What is it?" Max asked him.

"Gwen has a tin of biscuits in the office, huge, get's re-filled every week. If Nikki makes a big enough distraction, someone can slip off and grab a handful for everyone. Keeps us sick kids going, you see?"

Max laughed. "And that someone's me?"

"That someone's you. Get at least twenty."

"Sure thing." Max looked forward to this. Raiding cupboards was one of his favourite things to do at school, especially for food. He'd never helped anyone else with his skills before, but he'd never been in hospital before, not even at birth.

"Listen up everyone!" Neil called. "Code, crumb!"

There was general cheering and excitement from everyone. But Nerris groaned.

"I have to go AGAIN!" She exclaimed, scowling at Neil.

"Nah, I'm going. You can enjoy the game of dweebs." Max told her. She shot him a look, but went back to playing the game with Harrison. "Ha, my mage against your dwarf! I win again!"

Harrison sighed.

"Ready Nikki?" Max asked. She nodded eagerly.

"Sure thing!" With a grin, she leapt out of her bed and ran to the window, looking out. She grinned.

"What's that I see?" She called very loudly. "Is it the Twilight tour truck?!"

Gwen shot out of the office. "Where!" She gasped, flying to the window. Nikki pointed and leapt off the window still.

"David voted Trump, murder him!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. David poked his head out of the office, and gasped.

"Nikki!"

"Catch me if you can, orange slice!" Nikki yelled, and dived under Preston's bed.

"Watch my screenplays!" Preston shouted. David ran down the ward. Max took this as his cue, and slipped out of bed. He took one last look at the chaotic ward, before slipping into the office.

It was a small office, about the size of an ensuite bathroom. There was a desk, covered in paperwork and general clutter, stacks more of it all over the floor that Max had to pick his way through. How the two nurses managed to spend so much time in here was a mystery.

The office seemed to be a living space as well, with a small bunk bed, clothes lying around everywhere around that area. Many shelves held things from deodorant, to CDs and DVDs, to framed photos. A young, unsmiling Gwen next to posh looking parents, and many young, smiling Gwens hanging out at gigs and parties with a group of friends. There were a few of David, a younger Doctor Campbell with his arms around two young boys, one a little older than Max, and the other, obviously a young David. There were a few like this, the boys and Campbell at the park, at the beach, camping. Always smiling. Then two more, different. Campbell and David on their own, wearing suits. Campbell was no longer grinning, but David was doing his best. Then the other boy, on his own in a photo, smiling broadly over a POGs collection. Max turned away from wondering who this boy was, then remembered the biscuits.

He had to act fast, because the noise in the ward seemed to be quietening a little. Max looked wildly around, then spotted it, under the bed, a large, white, decorated tin. Jackpot! He hurried over and opened it. Lo and behold, he had never seen so many biscuits in one place before! Bourbons, custard creams, digestives... Max's mouth watered, and he started stuffing his face.

"For God's sake Nikki, every day!" Max heard, and then the approaching footsteps. He searched for a place to hide, but none were available. Cursing the situation, Max put the lid back on the tin and buried himself under a pile of clothes just as David, Gwen and Nikki entered the room.

"I can't help my nature!" Nikki argued. "I can't help the fact that I'm hyperactive and love causing trouble! You can't help that you live for trash TV and supernatural romance novels!"

"We all resist doing things we want to." David told Nikki in sincere voice.

"Yeah, like I'd gladly slap you round the head." Gwen muttered. David frowned, then went on.

"But you can't keep acting out like this!" He protested. "It disturbs your fellow patients, who are all trying to get better! Is there something upsetting you that we can help you with?"

"No." Nikki said casually. "Though it's probably because I've had a total lack of authority in my young life and I'm acting out for attention because my mum isn't really here that often and I want to see more of her. Something like that." Max bit his lips to try and stop himself from laughing. It just worked.

"Well, back off to bed. And I think it's almost dinner time, David usually heads off to the kitchens to get the trolley at this time." Max heard her skipping out of the office, back into the ward. Both nurses sighed.

"She's a fucking handful." Gwen muttered. "Well she's right. Best give them dinner while they're still alive."

"Gwen!" David exclaimed, and Max imagined him looking towards the door to the ward.

"What? Oh come on David, it's not like they're totally oblivious to what this place is. Remember Chucky-"

"I'll get the trolley." David said in a stiff voice. Max heard him leave, and Gwen sigh. Then the faint sound of music escaping out of headphones. He peeked out from underneath the clothes. Gwen was lying above him on the bottom bunk, her eyes shut, an I pod in her hand. Max grabbed the tin and escaped out the office.

"You made it!" Nikki exclaimed." To be honest, I hadn't a clue to where you were in there."

"Hiding." Max told her. "But check this!" He held up the tin. Nikki goggled and the kids cheered.

"The whole tin! You got the whole fucking tin!" Harrison exclaimed from his bed.

"Super cool!" Ered said with a grin.

"Yay!" Space Kid cheered. Max went round the ward, handing the biscuits out. He felt like a hero, for the first time in his life, he felt wanted and needed and loved.

 **By the way, the cover art is meant to be Max's bandaged arm with blood coming out the bottom, but A. I'm a terrible artist, and B. The camera didn't really work, so you can barely see it. Whatever, look out for the next chapter, probably sometime next week :)**


	3. Chucky

**I'm gonna address this issue early on this time: I'm the sort of author who likes feedback and sometimes, I can have up to six chapters with no reviews. I like knowing your opinion, and I'm always open to constructive criticism. That being said: Chapter three!**

Max had managed to hand out more than half the biscuits to everyone, before they heard David making his way back towards the ward. He had just managed to slip the tin back into the office (Gwen had fallen asleep) when the door opened.

Max froze. For a moment, he thought he was at home, caught sneaking to the cupboard in the dead of night, about to get 'what he deserved'. He shuddered.

"Max? What are you doing out of bed?" David asked, frowning.

"I erm, I had to go to the toilet!" Max used the oldest excuse in the book, one that had never worked on his parents, but seemed to work now.

"OK. Hop back into your bed now, dinner time!"

"Fina-fucking-ly!" Max muttered, sliding back into bed, his stomach still growling, despite the biscuits. ( **That's one of my catchphrases, copyright, me :)** )

"Success!" Nikki muttered through a very full mouth. She quickly closed it as David looked their way. Max allowed himself a small smile as David handed each kid a tray to prop up over their laps. He rose Gwen, and together, they handed each kid a plate and cup, along with cutlery. Max noticed everyone had a different approach to their meal, though they seemed to have the same food. Harrison made a face, Nurf seemed to consider, glancing at different parts of the plate. Dolph immediately separated his vegetables from the meat.

"What is this stuff?" Max asked.

"Beef, veg, gravy, mashed potato." Neil told him, very timidly shifting himself up a bit so he could eat. He was careful not to let anything touch his arms and chest too much, Max noticed.

"Don't tell me you've never had roast dinner, Max!" Nikki exclaimed, her mouth now full of potato.

Max shook his head. "My parents are ready meal type people." He told her.

"Not even at school!"

"I'm homeschooled."

Nikki shrugged and took another bite. Max had only picked up his fork when he spotted David approaching.

"Now Max, I know you hurt your arms, so if you need any help-"

"No!" Max gasped, embarrassed. "I mean, I can use my arms fine."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." He ducked his head until David moved on, making sure kids were eating, helping where he could. Nikki seemed to struggle using her arms a bit, but ate with her mouth mainly anyway. The only one who seemed to have real trouble with eating was Ered, who seemed horribly embarrassed by it, but being incapacitated, she didn't have a lot of choice. When she caught Max looking, she blushed and shot him such a dirty look he turned away and back to his own plate.

"Man, you do not want to mess with Ered!" Neil chuckled a bit through his meat. "She'll cut you up with verbal katanas." He seemed quite proud of this phrase.

"How did she end up like that?" Max asked. Neil shrugged.

"Something about a skateboarding accident..."

"Neil, stop talking shit!" They jumped to see Ered herself glaring at them. Neil ducked his head and started eating at a more rapid pace.

"Any more dumb questions?" Nikki asked, chewing vigorously on some celery.

"Yeah, actually." Max said, remembering something he'd overheard in the office. "Who was Chucky?"

The effect was immediate. Nikki choked and spat out her vegetables, right across her bed. Neil gasped, dropped his fork onto his arm. He hissed in pain as it fell to the floor, and winced.

"We don't talk about Chucky." He said through gritted teeth. "How did you-"

"Eavesdropping when I hid in the office." Max told them. "What-"

"Chucky was a kid here." Nikki said softly. "He had your bed, about two weeks ago-"

"I SAID, WE DON'T TALK ABOUT CHUCKY!" Neil snapped, and Nikki fell silent. Neil pushed his plate away, and got out his phone again, though he didn't switch it on, just sat there, staring at the black screen, biting his lip.

"I'll tell you later." Nikki whispered.

...

Later turned out to be almost bedtime, when Neil went off to the bathroom, to get his dressing changed, yet again, and everyone started to settle down.

"Chucky was a kid here, in your bed." Nikki continued. "I think he'd been in a car accident or something, he was all bandaged up. But he was cool about it, good sense of humour, great guy."

"What happened to him?" Max asked nervously, remembering the stiff tone David had taken, Neil's sudden foul mood.

"Well, one morning, we all woke up, and he just... didn't. I remember Gwen telling him to get up, then shaking him, then she got David and they got his bed out, fast as fuck. We never saw him again."

"Holy crap." Max muttered. "Was he dead?"

Nikki shook her head. "He was breathing , I could see. But they never told us what happened to him. Neil was really upset, he and Chucky were pretty good friends, he's still sad about it, I think."

"Looks like it." Max said, as Neil reappeared. Max and David seemed to be taking the less mobile kids, bed by bed, to get read to sleep: Neil, Dolph, Nurf, Ered, Preston. Eventually, David came to Max.

"You can go to the bathroom now, to brush your teeth and stuff." He gave Max an encouraging smile. Max sighed and slipped out of his bed, over to the bathroom. He found, to his disappointment, that he was not alone. Harrison and Space Kid were already in there, Space Kid muttering something about turbo boosters and playing with a towel, Harrison staring into the mirror, his hat off, rubbing a completely bald head with a sad expression. He jumped the moment he saw Max, and shoved his hat onto his head again. Max shrugged to tell him that it was OK and leant against a wall.

"Smart." Harrison muttered. "You have to stay in here at least five minutes to convince the nurses you're not just desperate to get the day over with gain. Most kids wet their heads to fake shower, but you know..." He gestured to his head.

"It's cool." Max told him, a little embarrassed though. Space Kid seemed oblivious to their conversation, now turning the shower on and off. "What's the deal with him? How hard did he hit his head?"

Harrison laughed. "No idea. I've been here longer than most, though. He's always been this crazy."

"Not as crazy as my sister, Veronica." Space Kid called. "If you listen to her phone calls, boy that's some weird things to talk about. Who cares about Jason Dean's ass, whatever that means." **(If someone gets this reference, I will be so happy!)**

Harrison and Max shared a laugh, and Max ran his hair under the shower. Space Kid brushed his teeth, and fiddled with his bandages nervously. Max noticed a few nasty, stitched up scars under his hair now that he was closer. Harrison gave him a look that said not to ask, and the three of them headed back into the ward. David checked them all over with glance, then motioned for them to go back to their beds as Nerris and Nikki headed into the bedroom.

"You took your sweet time." Neil commented as Max returned to his bed. "Though with Space Kid in there and all." Neil seemed calmer now that the subject of Chucky had been dropped. "Astronauts are always idiots."

"That's not very nice." Space Kid called, and he picked up a children's book entitled 'Reach for the Moon!'. "Can we read this one David?"

"Proved my point." Neil muttered, and Max laughed.

"What's funny?" Nikki asked as she jumped into bed beside Max.

"Settle down now kids." Gwen called. "Remember, visiting day tomorrow!" Neil gulped and turned white.

"Already?!" He exclaimed. Gwen nodded and he rolled his eyes. Max lay down in his bed and bit his lip. He knew his parents wouldn't show up tomorrow, yet most parents would be desperate to check on their child's condition so soon after an accident. Yeah. Accident.

As usual, the ten year old's brain began to conjure an excuse.


	4. Yay, visiting day!

**Yeah, it was Heathers :)**

Max woke up early that morning, before anyone else. He yawned and ran his hands through his rough and messy hair. It hadn't been combed in days, and it was unlikely it would see a comb for weeks, as his parents were probably too 'busy' to send him anything, let alone show up for a visit. Max would just say that they were busy at work, as he usually did.

Looking round the ward, Max observed all the other kids as they slept. All different; Nikki spread-eagled everywhere, Neil lying neatly under the covers, Space Kid snuggled down with his head on the pillow, Nurf, a shapeless mass that rose and fell as he breathed. Max had never slept in the same room as anyone, not even as a baby. He was surprised he'd been able to sleep at all, what with his stomach all crawling with nerves about tomorrow. Well, tomorrow was now today.

"Alrighty kids, rise and shine!" There was a general groaning around eight o'clock as the patients began to wake up.

"Too early." Neil murmured as he buried his face in his pillow. "Don't you idiots know that it's a Sunday?"

"Yep, it is a Sunday!" David exclaimed. "And you know what that means!"

"Parents day!" The kids groaned/cheered.

"Come on Neil, don't you like seeing your dad?" Nikki asked. "Or your mum? Whichever shows up. My mum always brings me presents!"

"Aren't you lucky!" Neil muttered, rubbing his eyes. "I suppose your parents'll bring you your stuff from home, Max?"

"Erm, no, I don't think so." Max said. "They have to work."

Their reactions were more or less as expected.

"On a SUNDAY?!" Nikki exclaimed. Max gave a nod.

"We're poor." He said stiffly.

"My mum's poor, but she still-"

"Just drop it, Nikki, OK?" Max snapped. He sighed. "When's breakfast?"

"Right now." Gwen said, appearing with the trays again.

"Porridge!" Nikki exclaimed, sitting up and poking her bowl with her spoon.

"Yeah, and don't you DARE spill it! I've got a motherfucker of a headache and I don't need changing your sheets to make it worse!"

"Hangover?" Max asked casually. Gwen gave a nod before she realised what she had just admitted to.

"Don't worry, I know some great hangover cures." Max sat back with a grin of his face. "Smokey bacon, dandelion water..."

"Erm, excuse me, but I'd kind of like to EAT!" Preston called. Gwen jumped and hurridly served the rest of the bowls to the left side of the ward.

"So, what are your parents like?" Max asked Nikki and Neil.

"The usual." Neil said through a full mouth. "My parents are divorced though, so they show up alternating weeks. Today's mum, thank God."

"My mum's cool!" Nikki said through an even fuller mouth. "We live in a little apartment across town, and it's all decorated. Her last boyfriend was an artist, he did it all up for us, really jazzy. Then I think the police found his stash of cane sugar and he's in jail now."

Max snickered, and Neil joined in.

"Does your mum visit him?" He asked out of curiosity. Nikki shook her head.

"Nah, she went off him after that. Then she got this girlfriend from Paris..." Nikki went on and on about her mother's various relationships with both sex's. Max lost interest. He tried to picture his own parents being promiscuous, but couldn't. They had always loved each other.

And only each other.

Max had been informed that the parents showed up at eleven o'clock. Shortly before this time, Max saw Dolph slowly shift himself out of his bed, which surprised him. He hadn't thought Dolph was capable of walking. But the other boy determinedly shuffled in a hunched over way to the end of the ward and sat on the window-seat next to Nurf's bed. As the first of the parents started to trickle in and two women came to the beds either side of Max, he decided to get out of bed to join him.

"Hey." Max sat beside Dolph. "Is this where the kids whose parents don't show up sit, out of the way?"

"No, this is where you meet for the swim team." Nurf said sarcastically, another surprise. Nurf was the only patient who Max hadn't yet heard speak. He hadn't been entirely sure Nurf could.

"Fair enough." Max sat back against the window, observing the ward. "So, what so you guys do, talk and shit?"

"Talk and shit." Dolph confirmed. He drew his sketchbook out and chewed on a pencil.

"What's the latest works?" Nurf asked. He seemed incapable of getting up from his bed, but could lean over a little towards Dolph and Max.

"I'm attempting a unicorn for Nerris's birthday." Dolph said, flicking through the sketchbook's pages too fast for Max to see. "But I can't get the dammed thing right!" He showed a neat little sketch of what appeared to be a horse, but the horn didn't quite sit right on it's head.

"I see what you mean." Nurf noted. Max goggled at the drawing.

"Damn, you are GOOD!" He exclaimed. Dolph gave a shrug.

"I've seen far better." He said modestly, but seemed pleased.

"So, what you in for?" Max asked Nurf. "Nikki said-"

"Nikki heard rumours." Nurf rolled his eyes. "I'm here for a pancreas transplant, idiot."

"Diabetic?"

"Obviously." Nurf rolled his eyes again. Max decided not to ask for the porn magazine after all, because Nurf didn't seem the most friendly guy in the ward. He sat back and ran his eyes over the ward. Nikki was chatting to a turquoise haired woman, who obviously wasn't listening, but seemed to be playing candy crush on her phone and eyeing up a woman with long blonde hair who was sat by Neil. The two were talking intensely, about science stuff, Max supposed. Preston was also talking, waving his arms about to demonstrate a point, but to an old, frail looking woman, who was staring out of the window with a small smile. Ered had two suited men, and they were talking in low tones, glancing around the ward. Family secrets? Max had no idea, he didn't really have any.

Over on the other side of the ward, Space Kid was doing a Preston, and bouncing around in his bed, talking loudly about commits and asteroids. His parents were smiling and nodding, but in an appeasing way, and a teenage girl sat with them wasn't even trying to look interested, on her phone and frowning. Nerris was speaking with a smile to her dad - Max caught a few phrases such as, more manna needed, and, dragon slaying tutorials, and decided not to listen any further. Harrison was watching Nerris too, out of the corner of his eye, while demonstrating some magic trick to a scared looking couple, who were sitting as far away as possible from his bed. At least they bothered to show.

"Where are your parents then?" Nurf asked Max, jolting him out of his train of thought.

"Huh?"

"Where are your folks? Surely they want to check up on their precious son soon after his... accident." Max didn't like Nurf's tone. Did he know?

"They don't have the time." He said, then thought quickly, "Where are yours? Jail?" He sneered, but Nurf shrugged.

"My mum is, actually." Max had his third major surprise in ten minutes.

"Jeez, erm, I'm sorry." He mumbled. Nurf shrugged.

"I don't really care. Everyone knows."

"What about you?" Max asked Dolph. "Your mums cellmates?"

"I live with my dad." Dolph explained, not looking up from his drawing. "He's... abroad at the moment."

"Germany?" Max couldn't help asking with a small smile.

"No. Pakistan." He sighed at the unicorn in the book. "That'll have to do, I suppose." The horn was slightly better than before, but only slightly.

Max rested his back against the window again and sighed. It was going to be a long day!

...

"And that is why it's my favourite Richard Fineman lecture!" Neil finished, and his mother smiled at him.

"Nicely put son." Neil beamed back. It was just nice to have someone who understood him and his enthusiasm for science. His mother hadn't been spending a lot of time with him lately, going out late, or on holiday, leaving him home alone or with his dad. Leaving town with another man, Paul, Neil thought he was called. When he'd been little, Neil had dreamed up schemes to get his parents back together, usually involving complicated science stunts. He had long since buckled down and accepted that it was never going to happen. Especially in the weeks he'd been here, when they even refused to visit him on the same day, and Nikki's mother kept flirting with both of them! Thank God his mother was having none of it, but dad...

Dang it, dad loved any woman who was into him, especially one as attractive and flirtatious and Nikki's mother.

"So, Neil, I have some news for you." His mother sighed, looking serious.

"What is it?" Neil asked nervously. She gave him a small smile and held his hand.

"Your dad's going to be your visitor for a couple of weeks, I'm going away."

"Away?" Neil asked, suddenly feeling like a small child again. "Away where?"

"Las Vegas, actually." She told him with a smile. Neil returned it with a scowl.

"Mum, you PROMISED!"

"I know, I know!" She sighed, waving her hand in front of her face. "Don't make his any harder than it already is, Neil!"

"If it's hard, then why go at all?!" Neil demanded. Then he saw her expression. "Oh. You're going with HIM, are you?" His tone was filled with spite.

"Neil-"

"Oh no, no, it's all fine, you go, have fun gambling and swimming and sunbathing, leave me here in this dingy little hospital! Go fuck your precious boyfriend!"

"Neil!" His mother gasped, mortified. "It's not like that!"

"Then what is it like?!" Neil demanded. "Because it sounds to me like the usual, you going off to have a good time with Mr Incredibly Sexy and leaving me at home, wondering if you'll even come back!"

"I'm getting married!" His mother blurted out. Then she winced.

"You're what?!" Neil gasped.

"Getting married." His mother said firmly. "Paul asked me two months ago and I, I said yes."

"Two months." Neil repeated. "This has been going on for TWO FREAKING MONTHS and you didn't even bother to tell me!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise." She said weakly.

"Bullshit!" Neil scowled. "You just don't want me as part of your perfect life anymore! Well fine. Go to Vegas, live it, I don't care anymore."

"Neil, I didn't mean to-"

"No!" Neil held up his hand. "I don't want to hear it. Go away, I mean it. Don't bother coming back, don't bother texting me a picture, nothing. I'm not being your pageboy!"

"Well you hardly could be, could you?" His mother snapped back, suddenly losing her temper. "Another one of your stupid science demonstrations and you land yourself in this dump!"

The moment she saw her son's face, she knew she'd gone too far. "Neil..."

"Get out!" Neil snapped.

"Wait, I-"

"Get OUT!" Neil snapped. His mother sighed, pursed her lips, but left without a word.

"What was that about?" Nikki asked. Neil turned away from her angrily, wishing he was more mobile so he could escape to the bathroom or something. But no, he was stuck 'using his mother's words' in this dump, after another stupid go at proving that he was better than all of the other nerds at school. Yeah. Fat chance of that happening, Neil!

If only Chucky were here. Chucky would understand, give him advice, then make him laugh again. Good old Chucky.

Poor unfortunate Chucky.

Neil grabbed his phone and turned it on, staring at the harsh, bright screen, hoping it would get rid of the tears pooling up in his sky blue eyes.

"I don't know, just, shut up Nikki, OK?" He snapped. God, if only he hadn't been so stupid that day!


	5. Neil's Story

**Just a heads up, I will do this flashback type thing for every character, or at least, every patient.**

 **This is the story of how Neil became a patient of Campbell Hospital.**

"So, if you are correct, Jack, that would explain how a cybernetics unit that powerful wouldn't blow Jeremy's brain out! Or anyone's!" **(yep, I couldn't resist another musical reference)**

"Yeah!" Jack nodded, speaking through his braces. Neil smiled at the other boy, though the pair were not friends. The nerds of the school didn't really class each other as friends, but hung around in a little group, just because none of them had any actual friends. There was Jack, Leon, Joseph, Thalia (the one girl) and Neil.

"Good theory, but based on your analysis, the quantum computer wouldn't be able to impersonate Kermit the Frog, or anyone for that matter, without going into overload and temporary shutdown, plus loading time." Joseph corrected.

"Oh." Jack muttered.

"Anyway, I thought we were discussing GMs this lunch time?" Thalia asked. What Neil wouldn't give for normal friends, but no, for a nerd in a typical middle school in America, this wasn't plausible.

"Yo dweebs!" All five winced at the unmistakeable voice and arrival of the school's chief bully and the nerd's chief tormentor, Al Funcoot. His broad Australian accent was plain to recognise, and his looming, muscular stature that was represented by the shadow falling over the group.

They had thought they'd be safe round the back of the school, by the abandoned toilets. Clearly they were wrong.

"We were discussing genetically modified organisms, or were about to." Jack answered, who had never had much common sense.

"Really?" Al pretended to be impressed. "Well, mind if I join you?" He said sarcastically.

"Of course not!" Jack told him brightly. "Anyone's welcome in the circle of nerds!"

"I TOLD you not to call us that!" Leon snapped though a face-palm.

"But-"

"Shut UP Jack!" Neil dug Jack in the ribs and he squealed.

"Genetically modified organisms are a heavy topic, Al, are you sure you can handle it?" He asked.

"Hey, I may not live up to my target grade,"

"No lies there."

"But at least I can keep my parents together!" Neil scowled, but, as usual, Al's words hit him like a knife.

"Whatever, say what you want to, at least I'll pass my A-levels!" He said smugly. This was a dangerous game to play with a bully, and the prize was usually a wedgie.

"What did you say!" Al demanded, and Neil suddenly felt a prickle of fear.

"He said you're right, and he should try harder to be a better kid!" Thalia said quickly Everyone shot her a look, and she ducked her head.

"Just eff off Al, we've got homework to do." Leon said in a calm and measured tone. "Unless you want to help us?"

Leon was very clever.

"No thanks." Al stood up. "You lot are lucky punks though." He pulled out a sheet of maths homework and threw it to Neil. "I want this done with top marks, you understand?!"

"No problem buddy." Neil said with a grin, though he was still angry and wanted to get back at Al. "Of course, we don't want your father to get mad about your bad grades again, do we?"

He instantly regretted this, as Al leant forward and grabbed Neil clean off the ground by his shirt collar.

"Are you talking shit again Neil!" Al demanded, his face very close to Neil's as the other nerds cowered in fear. "Because you know how I get when I'm ANGRY!"

"Yes, yes, no, I'm sorry!" Neil squealed. Al threw him roughly to the ground.

"Stupid little nerd-burgers!" He spat. "Never do anything useful with your brains, just use them to pass tests and shite. Never do anything useful or smart!"

"Hey, we can be very useful!" Neil snapped, then realised he'd walked straight into a trap.

"Oh really?" Al sneered. "Well, you've got until last period to convince me, or it's YOU KNOW WHAT!" He smacked his fist against his palm in a threatening manner.

"I will!" Neil squeaked. Al nodded, and marched off. The nerds let out long sighs.

"We really dodged a bullet there!" Joseph exclaimed. "But what are you going to do Neil?"

Neil thought for a moment. Right now, he hated this dump, all the kids thought he was a goody two shoes, and he would do just about anything to prove that he wasn't.

Why not kill two birds with one stone?

"I'm going to blow up the school!" He announced.

...

Of course, it was a stupid, crazy idea, that would probably never work in a million years.

Unless you were Neil, had many medals for science and wasn't really afraid of pretending it was a failed experiment. Of course, the other nerds tried to deter him from the idea, even go as far as to threaten to tell a teacher what he was up to, but Neil ignored them, and deep down, they were all searching for that tiny spark of danger; life on the wild side.

"OK, start the stopwatch Jack!" Neil ordered, placing the boiling tube neatly in the holder. When it says thirty seconds have gone by, tell me immediately, the hydrogen carbonate at exactly the right moment!"

"What happens if you don't?" Thalia asked him.

"Most likely scenario, we all die. This is some powerful stuff." He gestured to the beaker stewing over a bunson burner. "Then I stir in the hydrogen nitrate and we-" His mobile phone rang. "Oh for fuck's sake!" He scrambled in his pocket to answer it.

"Yeah mum, can't talk now, in the middle of science-"

"Thirty seconds up!" Jack called.

"Goddamit!" Neil snapped, grabbing the boiling tube and pouring in the contents.

"Neil, no wait, that's-" He heard Leon shout, then something blew up, he felt heat everywhere, all over his jumper, it was burning him, he felt it and screamed.

"Neil!" He heard the others shout.

"Neil? Neil!" He heard his mother's voice from the dropped phone, as she listened to her son screaming in agony. "NEIL!"

But Neil couldn't hear anything anymore.


	6. Step-father?

**Sorry, I just can't resist the musical references! :)**

The rest of the day was a long one. The parents ate lunch with their kids, or the kids ate lunch alone in Max, Neil, Dolph and Nurf's case. At three o'clock, the adults said their goodbyes, and Max and Dolph returned to their beds.

"Well, that was boring." Max commented as he slid back into bed. "Those guys are really dry for conversation. How did your visits go?"

"Mum brought me candy!" Nikki exclaimed, holding up some chocolate bars. "But I don't think Neil had the best day." She gestured with her head to Neil, who was still on his phone, just scrolling back and fourth through old texts. Nikki shrugged as Max looked back over at her. He then leaned over towards Neil.

"Hey bro, you OK?"

"I'm fine!" Neil snapped. "Just leave me the fuck alone!" Max shuffled away from Neil a bit and he sighed.

"My mum's not coming back for a while." He muttered.

"My parents aren't coming at all." Max told him.

"Yeah, but." He sighed. "My mum goes on vacation with her boyfriend a lot, and when I first got put in here, I made her promise she would visit every fortnight and not leave me here alone."

"She's going, isn't she?" Max asked. Neil nodded.

"Ooh, where?" Nikki asked, and her lack of sympathy somehow made Neil smile.

"Las Vegas."

"Oh, my mum took me there once!" Nikki exclaimed. "I tried to win a shit ton of money by counting cards, but they said I was too young or some junk."

"Understandable." Max noted. "So your mum's going away even though you're stuck here and made a promise? That sucks!"

"That's not even half of it!" Neil exclaimed. "She's been engaged for two months without even telling me!" Max and Nikki's mouths dropped open.

"So she's running off to Vegas to get married!" Nikki exclaimed. "My dad did that three years ago. Last I ever heard of him."

"Suppose so." Neil muttered.

"Dude, that sucks!" Max exclaimed. "I mean, I have a shitty family life as well, but I can't imagine being ditched like that."

Neil shrugged. "It's OK, I'll get over it. I'm just really pissed right now."

'At least your parents care.' Max wanted to say, but didn't.

"Well kids, another week of visiting over!" David's happy tone broke through their conversation. "How was it kids!"

"Terrible." Neil muttered. "And I don't want Sunday to come around ever again." Max laughed.

"Amen to that!"

"Oh come on, can't have been that bad!" David said happily.

"Yeah, at least you weren't stuck in a cupboard with HIM!" Gwen sighed. They laughed, as Gwen went back into the office. The kids started talking about their own parents to each other, which Max found rather interesting.

"So, your dads have the weekends off?" Preston asked Ered.

"Unless they're on call."

"Lucky. My sister's working for weeks with no time off, it's a miracle Gram Gram gets here by herself."

"Seems mum and dad haven't changed." Harrison said gloomily to Nerris. "But your dad brought you a new set?"

"Yeah, Hobbit Monopoly! Want a game?"

Space Kid seemed to be explaining his entire family life to the only kid close enough not to ignore him; Dolph, who wasn't listening and seemed to be doodling absent mindedly in a copy of: _The Rise and Fall of Communism_. After a while though, it all seemed to settle down for a bit. Harrison had to leave the ward for 'treatment' and spent a good forty five minuets in the toilet afterward. Nurf started reading another porn magazine. Max spent another hour with nothing to do but watch Nikki as she scribbled in newspapers.

Neil decided to text his dad about his mum's marriage. Maybe he could do something about it?

 _Hey dad._

 _Hey Neil! :) how was your mum's visit?_ Neil wondered how to play this.

 _The usual. But I've got news._

 _?_

 _Mum's getting married :(_ It seemed a long while before his dad texted back.

 _Good for her_

Seriously? Neil made a face at the screen. How as his dad not upset about this. Before he knew what he was doing, Neil had pressed the call button and moments later, his dad picked up.

"Hello? Neil?"

Cursing himself, Neil put the phone to his ear.

"Hey dad."

"What're you calling me for?" His dad asked. "I'm in the middle of writing my next seminar, you know!"

"While texting?" Neil asked. His dad sighed.

"OK, you got me dude." Neil cringed and pressed the phone deep into his ear in hope that no one overheard their conversation.

"Mum's going to Las Vegas to get married." He said. His dad was silent for a moment.

"That's cool. So I'll be your visitor for a while, we can get closer-"

"Dad! Dad, aren't you upset by this?" Neil asked anxiously. "She was your wife for five years!"

"That's not very long, is it Neil?" There was a rustling sound as his dad went through sheets of paper. "Face it son, me and your mother have never been, should we say, a good couple. She was my first girlfriend, and I was a bit overwhelmed, so proposed barely a year after we met. I think she married me out of sympathy, and then you came along before she could leave me."

"So I was the only reason you guys stayed together so long?" Neil clutched the phone in shaking hands. His dad seemed to realise what he'd just said.

"No, no, Neil you're more than that. You just have to understand that, even though me and your mum love you, we're not going to get back together. Your mum is free to marry a man who makes her happy and I'm totally cool with that."

"Yeah." Neil muttered. "Whatever."

"Neil? Neil, are you-"

"See you next Sunday." Neil hung the phone and dropped it onto his chest with a sigh. He didn't really know what his issue with this was, the marriage, his mum leaving, his dad's lack of caring. Maybe it was just the little boy Neil inside him, playing with his chemistry set and blowing out his birthday cake candles, making the same wish every time.

Please make mummy and daddy stop fighting.

Please make mummy come home.

Please make mum and dad just tolerate each other. For one day!

Yeah. As if. His mum wouldn't even walk him to the front door of his dad's house any more, just wait round the corner in the car. And Neil birthday wishes hadn't done anything.

He might as well be atheist, because G-D obviously had better things to do.

"Yo Neil, you got Wi-Fi?" Max asked. "There are some great memes online I can show you."

"Ooh, and cat videos!" Nikki exclaimed, and Neil sighed happily as the pair crowded round either side of his bed. At least he had his friends. Nikki's parents hadn't been together for longer than a month. And Max...

Well, Max had some secrets, that was for sure. But perhaps there was a kindly omnipotent face up there, sending him help through the people in the next beds.

Maybe, just maybe, he'd learn to get on with this new step-father.


	7. Treatment

"I've already said, absolutely fucking NOT!"

"Mind your language!" David exclaimed, glancing around the ward at the eagerly listening patients. "Max, you know this is essential for your arms to heal up properly!"

"Fuck that!" Max snapped. "I might as well go home now, because there is no way in hell I will go!"

"Max,"

"Suck a dick!"

"Language Max!"

"Suck two!"

Preston was laughing so hard he almost fell out of bed. The other kids old enough not to be shocked by Max's foul language were dying with laughter also as Max stared down the weary nurse. It had been announced to him that he had to go for his first treatment, and he was refusing point blank to come.

David sighed. "Max, why don't you and me have a talk. Outside." Max didn't trust David, but reluctantly followed him outside the ward and into the corridor.

"What is this really about Max?" David knelt down to Max's height. "Do you just not like injections?"

"Who bloody likes injections, apart from the doctors who get to stick people with them?" David gave a small chuckle.

"Yeah, that's one part of the job I will never do. Do you know why?"

Max shrugged.

"Because the doctor with the needle always has to look the patient in the eyes just before they put the needle in, to reassure them, and all they see is fear. And no doctor wants their patient to be afraid of them."

Max didn't know why, but David's words reassured him somehow, so he let David 'convince' him to head down to the treatment clinic, one floor below the ward. He sat in the waiting room, opposite a timid looking blonde man with a ponytail and a foul smelling boy from a different ward, who attempted to make conversation, but Max had none of it. He moved over to a coffee machine and made himself a cup. It had been ages, and the hot drink managed to bring a smile to his lips, though inside he was all nerves. Max was unwilling to admit it to David, but he hated hospitals, hated the smell, the feel, the fact that it was filled with old and sick people who were all going to die. He didn't just hate them, he was scared of the too, and even though he'd spent the last two nights in one, his fear was as strong as ever. It just reminded him, of those days, coming every day, praying for him to wake up, the lifeless, cold hand lying next to the lifeless cold body...

Max's hands began to shake so badly he dropped his cup of coffee. He turned to the door and hurried towards it, he just had to get out of here!

"Max?" He turned reluctantly to the sound of David's voice, as the nurse stuck his head through the clinic door. "Where were you heading?"

"Toilet." Max grunted, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Can it wait? The doctor can see you now."

Max gulped, and reluctantly followed David through to a scary looking room, with a white desk, fake white skeleton and several jars of medicine and chemicals, and pills, and huge, sharp needles...

Max took deep breaths as he seated himself on a chair and looked at the doctor. He had imagined a scary looking, old man with greying hair, small glasses and an evil grin, but what he got was a strong looking black woman with a 'do not mess with me or I will stick a needle where it'll really hurt' attitude. Though more badass and like himself, still a little scary. She gave him a scary grin.

"Hey, Max. I'm Bonquisha, and I'm gonna be your doctor for the rest of your time here."

Max gave a nod, but didn't speak. Bonquisha didn't really seem to notice Max's uncertainty, but David gave him a little concerned frown from the other side of the room. Bonquisha shuffled through some papers on her desk.

"Max, blood loss, needs heavy dose of Ichrogen Chlistorine. Right..."

Max felt sick as Bonquisha picked out a particularly sharp needle and filled it from a bottle. **(I have no idea how injections work)** She then turned to him.

"Now, this may hurt a little..."

That was all Max needed to hear. His deep breaths rose into panicked ones and his hands began to tremble violently on his lap. He felt his head swimming and gripped the side of the chair to prevent himself from falling off. He felt like he was going to pass out. Suddenly, David was there, in front of him, his face concerned.

"Are you going to be OK Max? Do you need a minute?"

"No, I, I'm fine" Max gasped as he struggled to slow his breathing. David frowned.

"He don't look so fine!" Bonquisha commented. Max took a breath and managed to steady his hands.

"Nah, I'm OK. Hit me with your best shot." He bared his arm towards Bonquisha. She approached with the needle as David stepped back again. Max bit his lip. he was tough, it was just a little prick with a needle, how bad could it possibly be?

He felt a sudden stinging in his arm and gasped at the shock of it. He expected Bonquisha to take out the needle, but it stayed there, he could feel it. Had something gone wrong? Was he going to die? Oh god, oh god...

Max knew he shouldn't look, but he couldn't resist one tiny peek.

He saw Bonquisha press the needle down, saw the amber fluid go into his arm.

That was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.

...

"Max, awake yet?" Max grunted slightly and opened his eyes. He was lying in the familiar feel of a hospital bed, and snapped his eyes open at once, terrified that all the other kids had seen him passed out.

Nope, he was alone, in a plain, whitewashed room. Well, not quite alone.

"Oh good, you're up at last." David said with a grin. Max scowled.

"How the fuck did I end up here?" He asked sharply. For once, David didn't scold his language.

"This is a private recovery rom, and after you passed out, I decided it was better to let you come round here, than in the main ward." Max gave a surly nod.

"Yeah. Well, thanks."

"Can you walk yet?" David asked. "You can probably go back to join your friends now, but if you want to rest a bit more-"

"No!" Max exclaimed, then collected himself a little, as he was still embarrassed about passing out due to a needle in the arm. "I mean, I'm good." He swung himself out of bed and got to his feet. He felt a little unsteady on his feet, but followed David back into the ward. Gwen was nowhere to be seen, but Nikki was sat on Max's bed, chatting to Neil about Vegas. Neil looked bored, but smiled a little as he saw Max.

"Hey." He said as Max pushed Nikki off his bed and climbed back in instead. "How was it? You were gone ages."

"Oh you know, the usual." Max grunted as Nikki jumped back into her own bed.

"What is the usual? What did they do? Take your brains out. Pump your stomach? Twist your guts until-"

"Shut up Nikki." Max snapped, still feeling a little faint. Even from the other side of the room, he could feel David's eyes watching him. He didn't really like the nurse, but was glad someone cared.

"Almost everyone here goes down for treatment at one point or another." Neil told him. "I get my dressing changed, Nikki's fine though, she'll probably be out of here soon."

"And back again." Nikki reminded him. "I always have accidents." Max saw something else in her words and sniggered.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, er, nothing." Max sighed and sat back into his bed, looking around the ward. No one really looked happy either, apart from Nikki and Space Kid. Preston was moodily flicking through something on his phone, Ered was staring at the ceiling, sighing dramatically. Nurf had gained a pencil from somewhere and was writing on the wall. Dolph was asleep, scowling. Nerris seemed really upset about something, and Harrison was sat next to her on her bed, talking softly, trying to cheer her up?

Max didn't really know them well enough, but decided it was enough. He'd never really had friends, kept himself to himself. But here, there were so many kids that seemed troubled, and some of them, relatable. And he had Neil and Nikki. For now, it would be enough.

 **Nerris being upset carries through to the next chapter, so keep that in mind for my next update :)**


	8. LARPer World

**Hello. I've decided that, as my other story: Which Camp Should I belong to? will have finished in a few chapters (not too sure of the numbers), I'll give my next Camp Camp update a sneak peek of the story I'll be posting after that finishes. I'm quite excited about it, so if you could give me your thoughts?**

"Son of a bitch?!" Max exclaimed, backing away steadily. "Jasper, what-"

"Shut up Max!" Jasper snapped. "And shut your fellow livings up too, because they are REALLY starting to annoy me!" The ghost drifted upwards from the floor, looking past Max at Nurf, Nerris, Harrison and Preston, who were looking worried and confused, muttering amongst themselves.

"Max, what the heck's going on?" Harrison asked nervously, as all he could see was Max talking to thin air. Nerris clutched his hand.

"Just show yourself Jasper." Max muttered. "That'll shut them up."

Jasper rolled his eyes, then as lightning flashed across the abandoned summer home's abandoned laboratory, he became visible to the other campers. Preston gave a scream as he saw the angry ghost hovering three feet in the air.

"Is that-"

"Yep." Max muttered. "Meet Jasper, who appears to have gone a little phsyco."

"Jen was right to tell us not to come over here!" Nerris muttered in wonder. "A real live ghost!"

"Be quiet!" Jasper snarled, floating right up to Nerris. "Or do I have to make you?"

Instinctively, Preston and Harrison stepped in front of her, bumping their shoulders in an annoyed way. They scowled at each other.

"Leave her alone Jasper." Max stepped forwards. "I thought it was me you wanted?"

 **And so, yep, I'm not giving away too much, but that's a snippet of a later chapter for 'Jasper's Curse'. It will contain some VERY harsh topics though (no sex though, don't worry), so read at your own risk :) All th necessary warnings will be included in the author notes of the first chapter.**

 **And on with what you all came for:**

"OK kids, Gwen's just in the office, but I have to run an errand downstairs." David said in his usual cheery tone. "Nerris, do you mind coming with me? We need to carry some stuff and you seem the best person to help out."

Nerris gave a sort of gloomy nod and followed David out. Max expected another boring morning, but instead, Harrison jumped out of bed and stuck his head round the office door. He nodded, and then went back into the main ward.

"OK everyone, listen up please?" The kids fell gradually silent and Harrison cleared his throat.

"It's Nerris's birthday today." Harrison said. "And I told David to take her out for an hour or so we could get a surprise ready. He thinks we're making a card or something, but I have bigger plans." He gave a wild grin, and pulled a flyer from Nerris's bedside table. "Nerris was going to go here today, this amazing LARPing course thingy, I don't really know much, but she's still recovering from having her appendix out, so I thought," He took a deep breath. "We make a similar type thing, here."

Everyone stared at Harrison like he should be in the psychiatric ward.

"OK." Neil shifted himself upwards a little so he could talk better. "So you're suggesting that we, nine kid patients, half of which can't even get out of bed, build a LARPing course. Out of what?"

"Well, I know that they keep a LOT of cardboard in the loading bay downstairs." Harrison said. "And we have our beds. And moving isn't everything. Nurf can use his upper body, Dolph can walk, kind of, and you're probably the smartest people our age I've ever met, Neil. You can figure out the scientific details."

Praising Neil was obviously the right way to go. His sceptical face broke into a grin.

"Right." He rubbed his hands together. "Who can walk, Nikki, Max, Harrison, Space Kid, so... Harrison, Nikki, Max go get the cardboard, we'll start preparing, this is gonna be awesome!"

"Yeah!" Space kid cheered. Even Ered looked excited. This was going to be the most fun any of them had ever had in the hospital.

"We only have an hour!" Preston reminded them. "I'll design the props, Dolph, you draw a flag..."

Harrison came over to join Nikki and Max as they slid out of their beds.

"This is gonna be so COOL!" Nikki giggled, and Max was glad there was someone to break the, what would be, awkward silence. Max barely knew Harrison, but he seemed OK. Seemed.

"Let's go then." Max said, and Nikki lead the way into the corridor. It was deserted.

"Where to now?" Max asked Harrison. Harrison scratched his head, lifting his hat up slightly.

"Um, not too sure. I've only seen the loading bay once, err, I think we need a key?"

"Well this was well thought out then, wasn't it?" Max sneered. Harrison scowled.

"There's one in the nurse's office, down at the other end of the second children's ward." The three of them looked at the door that none of them had ever passed through.

"Do you think we should knock?" Harrison asked Max.

"What's the deal? It's just kids." Nikki started towards the door.

"No, Nikki, wait, what if-" But Nikki had already thrown the door open. Harrison and Max had no other choice but to pass through.

It was a ward, much like their own, only smaller, only eight beds. Six were occupied, two boys and two girls. An auburn haired boy with terrible acne and a broken leg was playing cards with another boy who had a bandage over his eye, sucking at a candy cane. Another boy was reading a porn magazine and reminded Max of Nurf. He shoved it hastily under the covers, but when seeing that it wasn't an adult, brought it out again. The three girls were all gossiping and looking at things on their phones, doing each other's hair. One had a drip, another had a bandage over her eye and the third, with blue hair, looked more or less unharmed.

"Oh thank God." The red haired girl with the drip sighed in relief. "I thought Jeremy was back already."

"He is SO gross!" The girl with the bandage over her eye nodded in agreement.

"So who are they then." The auburn haired boy said with a distrusting frown. "Intruders?"

"Pikeman, this isn't World War Three." The blue haired girl rolled her eyes, then got up out of her bed and came over to them. Max saw that her torso was tightly wrapped in bandages and she had a slight limp. "Hey, I'm Erin. She's Sasha," Sasha gave them a nod. "And Tabii"

"Spelt with two eyes!" Tabii said sharply. Erin rolled her eyes again. "And the boys are Pikeman, Stephen **(Van Petrol, if you remember)** and Billy."

"Snake." Billy corrected. He gave them a brief nod, then turned his attention back to his cards.

"That's Nikki, Max and I'm Harrison." Harrison told them. "We're from the ward next door. We need the key for the loading bay."

"The what now?"

"It's in the office."

"Miss Priss is in there." Tabii with two 'I's and one eye, told them. "But she'll be passed out drunk. You'll be fine."

"Unless Mr Woodscout's in there." Snake muttered. "Then you'll be fucked."

"Oh let them go, their funeral." Pikeman snapped. "Two sevens."

"Bullshit.

"Shite."

Snake laughed. Max looked from Nikki, to Harrison, and then to the door at the end of the ward. There were two of them there, one marked office, and once marked...

Max gasped slightly.

"You two grab the key." He muttered.

"Max?"

"Gotta check something out." Harrison shrugged and he and Nikki went into the office. The kids in the ward seemed to return to their normal routines. Max edged nearer to the door. The door marked with a word that was familiar.

Not a word. A name.

Max went inside.

A room. A small, clean, hospital room, with a bed and that bed had a person in it.

An oxygen mask over their face. A drip in their arm. The slight rise and fall of his chest.

Max had never met him, but he knew exactly who it was, from the label on the door.

Chucky.

He gasped, and felt light headed again. The body, in the bed, hoping that he would wake up, learning that he wouldn't...

Max stumbled away and grabbed the doorknob, turning it and almost falling out of the room. He slammed the door on the unconscious body, breathing hard.

"What was in there?" Nikki asked. "A crypt. Ooh..."

"No, nothing." Max tried to slow his breathing. "You get the key?"

"Sure did!" Nikki exclaimed, as Harrison held it up. "Now let's go build a castle!"

...

Nerris didn't feel like she was having the worst birthday ever. She should be atop of the tallest peak of the castle in 'LARPer world!'. Not in a dumb kid's ward in a dumb hospital, carting a few packets of food around with the most annoying doctor in the history of doctors. It was abad day, and worse, all she had with her parents was a phone call, no special outing, not even a temporary hospital discharge. Assholes. She was fine. She felt fine.

"Well, that's the last of them." David said cheerily, rubbing his back. "Good job Nerris!"

"Yeah." Nerris muttered. "Whatever."

"Well, back to the ward now." David said. "Are you enjoying your birthday?"

"Yeah, it's been a lot of laughs." Nerris said, but David, being an idiot, didn't catch the sarcasm.

"That's great! And, just so you know, there could be a little surprise waiting for you back at the ward!" Nerris rolled her eyes. A cheap birthday cake probably, and electric candles. Whoopee!

As they approached the ward, Nerris heard whispers and shuffling. David knocked.

"You guys ready in there?" He called, with a mysterious wink at Nerris.

"Almost." Harrison called back. "OK, yeah, send her in first David."

"What-" Nerris began, but David grinned mysteriously, opened the door and sent Nerris through. Nerris was immediately grasped by some hands, and a blindfold shoved roughly over her eyes.

"What the hell-" She exclaimed, but was pulled forwards and the door slammed behind her.

"Lock it quick!" She heard someone shout, Neil?

"Got it!" Someone else, Nikki?

"OK, everyone ready?"

"Harrison, what is this?" Nerris exclaimed, but then the blindfold was whisked off her face and her mouth dropped open.

A castle. Exactly like the one in LARPer world, only a lot smaller and roughly crafted from cardboard and mattresses. The ward was a mess, but there were sword and monster props and Nerris's special LARPing dice were littered everywhere.

"Welcome to LARPer world, Nerris!" Harrison said with a grin.

"Wow!" Nerris gasped. "You guys DID this?!"

"Sure did." Nikki said with a smile. "It was Harrison's idea though." She turned to Harrison, who grinned sheepishly.

"I thought, if you can't go to LARPer world on your birthday, we'd bring it to you."

"Oh my god, thank you so much!" Nerris gasped, grinning wildly. "But how did you get David and Gwen's permission for this?"

"Oh we, err, kind of didn't." Preston said with a cheeky smile.

"Guys, am I allowed in yet?" David called, oblivious to the conversation.

"Never!" Nikki cried. "This is LARPer world and no adults allowed!"

"What?" David gasped.

"For the next three hours, the ward is OURS, David!" Harrison called joyfully. "Go sit in the doctor's lounge or something, while Nerris gets the birthday she deserves!"

"Harrison, open this door, this instant! Is Gwen in there? Gwen?"

"She's already gone that way." Max called to him. "Join her, unless you want to get fired for letting this stunt happen?"

David sighed.

"Fine. As long as you're careful."

"No one's careful at LARPer world. Now AWAY!"

They waited until they were sure David was gone, then cheered.

"Now, fair lady Nerris, the cute." Harrison said with a smile. "What do you decree that we do?"

Nerris grinned.

"I say we GO and kick some monster ASS!"

 **I know it's a bit surreal, but my fic, my rules :)**

 **Please let me know your opinions on the sneak peak, I could really use that :)**


	9. Nerris's Story

**This chapter will contain very brief mentions of the menstrual cycle, so if that makes anyone uncomfortable, just skip over it.**

 **This is the story of how Nerris became a patient of Campbell Hospital.**

School sucked. Everyone knew school sucked, but they showed up anyway. Why?

Nerris still didn't know. When she'd been younger, she'd been anticipating that letter from Hogwarts, to go to a school that taught her things she wanted to know and had people who enjoyed stuff she enjoyed the same stuff as her. But no, normal school it was, where no one else enjoyed LARPing and Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Year ago, they'd all played their pretend games together, but no, only Nerris wanted to do that now. Sadly.

And today was a shite day. Nerris had been carrying around an aching stomach, she had stayed up until three o'clock last night, reading, and hadn't done her geography homework. And just as she saw a very unwelcome face approach, the pain in her stomach increased and she winced, shoving her books in her bag and preparing to leave the classroom.

"Hey Nerris, wait up." Nerris groaned as her chief tormentor, Harriet Cunningham.

"What?" She snapped. "I'm not in the fucking mood today."

"Ooh, someone's a little touchy!" Harriet giggled as her two hangers on, Henrietta Dillinger and Halley McDonald, caught up, grinning too.

"Whatever, I've got to get to Geo."

"Why don't you fly there on," She laughed. "Your 'magic dragon'."

"Yeah." Halley giggled. "Or a broomstick."

"Shut up Halley!"

"Sorry Harriet."

Nerris rolled her eyes and tried to get past them, but Henrietta threw out her arm with a satisfied smile. Nerris scowled, but there were three of them and one of her. And she left her special throwing dice at home.

"Guys, can I just-" Nerris began, but gasped in sudden pain as the ache in her stomach seared up. She wrapped her arms around it and doubled over in pain.

The three tormentors looked at each other, uncertain.

"Is she OK?" Halley asked nervously. Harriet saw her opportunity and took it with a malicious grin.

"What is it Nerris?" She asked in mock kindness. "Is it your time of the month? or so he-she's like you even get periods?" They burst into laughter. Nerris didn't care, she couldn't concentrate, the pain was just... too much.

Then she felt someone flick her ear.

"Oi, transgirl! I'm talking to you!"

"Fuck off!" Nerris snapped. "I'm a girl, just like you, just leave me alone!" It was the truth, Nerris had thought about it, but did identify as her birth sex, despite her appearance.

"Just like us?!" Harriet exclaimed and they all laughed, like a hoard of cackling sirens.

She felt her ear get flicked again, and couldn't take it anymore. She dropped to her knees, clutching her stomach.

"Girls? What's going on in here?" Nerris looked up through her welling up eyes to see, at last, a teacher.

"Nerris doesn't feel well, we were going to help her to the medical room." Halley said in a voice that faked innocence. The teacher frowned, the knelt down beside Nerris.

"What's the matter Nerris. Did you get kicked?"

"I don't know, it just really hurts..." Nerris groaned. The teacher frowned.

"Off to your next lessons you three, I'll help Nerris."

The three girls left, still laughing.

"Hmm, do you remember doing anything to cause this?" The teacher asked. Nerris shook her head. "I don't want to alarm you Nerris, but this could be bad. Can you walk? I'll drive you to the hospital."

Nerris didn't remember a whole lot after that, only the teacher speeding down the road, the doctors asking her questions, and then she was in a scary operating room. She didn't like this at all.

"Just try to breathe deeply honey." A female surgeon told her. "We'll sort you out in a jiffy."

Nerris was really creeped out, but Sam the Hobbit was brave when he faced down the Orcs, Harry Potter was brave when he faced down the greatest evil wizard of all time. She could be brave too!

The next thing she knew, she was waking up in a room, and her parents were there. Her mum was crying a little, and hugged her, and then she got to have a long chat about Doctor Who with her dad while her mum talked to the doctor. It was then determined, Nerris would rest at the hospital until she was better. About a week and a half, they said. Well, this would be boring!

That night, she couldn't sleep, in the strange ward filled with strange kids. Her bed was next to another boy who didn't seem very friendly and the one on the other side...

Well, he hadn't spoken to her at all, but he didn't seem that friendly either.

Nerris was about to roll over and start reading the book her dad had dropped off, when she suddenly heard a sound she found surprising.

It was someone crying.

Nerris slowly turned over and saw the shape of the boy in the next bed, sat up, his shoulder's hunched over, the hat he'd been wearing in his hands. She watched him crying for a few minutes, before he suddenly stiffened, and looked at her.

Their eyes locked. She stared into his green eyes and he stared into hers. Then, fast as lightning, he threw himself backwards onto the bed and rolled away from her.

"Oh, sorry, I..." Nerris didn't really know what to say.

The boy faked snoring.

"I like your hat." Nerris said weakly. "It's, err, a magician's hat, isn't it."

The boy didn't move. Then he rolled over.

"Yes." He told her quietly. "That's what I do. And you?"

"I'm more into dragons and D&D myself." Nerris admitted. "I'm Nerris, by the way."

"I know." The boy said. "David, the nurse, the annoying one, said a new patient would be arriving today, by the name of Nerris." She caught his grin in the dark. "You, I presume."

"Wow, you really are magic!" Nerris said sarcastically. The boy shrugged. "So, do you have a name, or shall I just call you 'magic boy'." She meant this as a joke, but the boy looked downwards, biting his lip. "Oh, err, I'm sorry, I-"

"Harrison." The boy said with a bright smile. "My name is Harrison."

Nerris decided that her week and a half spent in this ward wouldn't be so boring after all.


	10. The castle crashes down

**In case no one noticed, I am a definite Nerrison shipper :)**

It had been one of the best things to ever happen to any kid in a hospital. Not only did Nerris get an unbelievably enjoyable birthday with her friends and fellow patients, but the other kids enjoyed it too; scrambling up and down the fort and having mock battles. It turned out, the previously thought 'immobile' patients could move around a bit more than they let on. Nurf could sit up and use his body, except for his legs for some reason. Preston couldn't walk, but had fun pretending a wheelchair was a horse when the kids split themselves into teams and 'battled'. Dolph could walk, sort of, but seemed pretty lively when he got into the spirit of things.

"Well, best birthday ever or what?" Harrison asked with a grin. Nerris nodded eagerly.

"The day I was born was pretty cool, but this is amazing!" She smiled at him. "Harrison, I know I don't have long until I'm allowed out, but... I'd like to see you again. Do you mind if I come visit some weeks?"

Harrison looked delighted. "I would be offended if you didn't." He told her.

"Hey birthday girl, you gonna get up here?" The new kid, Max, right atop of the highest turret, having the time of his life, along with Nikki, Space Kid and Dolph.

"Just a sec!" Nerris called, giving Harrison's hand a squeeze, then the pair stood up and climbed the castle.

"Neil and Ered are gonna knock it down while we're on the top!" Nikki squealed. "This is gonna be so cool!"

"Yeah, we'll go flying!" Space Kid cheered.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Was making this thing in the first place a good idea?" Nikki challenged Harrison. Harrison rolled his eyes, but Nikki was crazy and there was no reasoning with her.

"Whatever, is this thing needs to be demolished, I'm watching from a safe distance." He slid down the cardboard slide and landed on the mattress below. "Nerris?"

"Yeah, I'll watch too." Nerris leapt off and landed in a crouch below on the mattresses the kids had used for safe landings.

"Suit yourselves." Neil said with a grin. "Let's go Ered!"

"Oh yeah!" Ered laughed and Neil aimed their beds, and charged.

"Hold on!" Max cried, and the four of them gripped the cardboard.

The two beds slammed into the fort and it rocked, but remained sturdy.

"Yeah! Again, again!" Space Kid shouted.

"OK, but that's the last time!" Neil called up.

"Watch it you idiots!" Preston told them. "I don't want to be cleaning your brains from the ground.

"That's what my sister said before I got my head hurt." Space Kid noted.

"Watch out!" Dolph cried as the beds slammed into the fort again. The structure shook and the part beneath Nikki crumbled. She fell the the floor and bounced off one of the mattresses.

"Woohoo, that was AWESOME!" She cheered.

"Guys, it's almost dinner time!" Nerris called up. "Let's get it down and get David in here to serve our food.

"Yeah!" Space Kid cried. "To infinity and JUMP!" He threw himself from the tower and bounced off the mattresses. Max rolled his eyes, and took the safer route of sliding down. The structure rocked dangerously, and most of it fell away with Max, leaving Dolph at the top, as the castle became increasingly unstable.

"Jump Dolph!" Harrison yelled. The castle rocked under the boy's feet and he looked uncertain. The mattresses were further away from him than they had been for the others and behind him there was just the plain hard floor, which would hurt to land on. He took a deep breath and prepared to take his leap of faith, but before the nine other kids watched with paranoid eyes as the boxes and matresses and bedframes collapsed under him and Dolph crashed to the ground, out of sight.

"SHIT!" Max exclaimed as he, Nikki and Harrison hurried to clear away the boxes. "Where the hell is he?"

"Here!" Nikki exclaimed as she revealed Dolph under a sheet of cardboard. Max expected him to sit up and laugh, but Dolph was curled, clutching his stomach with a pained expression.

"You OK?" She asked nervously. Dolph whimpered and shook his head.

"Es tut wirklich weh." He gasped in German, and moved his hand aside a little.

A patch of dark, red blood was spreading over his pyjama shirt.

"SHIT!" Harrison gasped. "Where's David when you need him, oh my..." He made to clutch at his hair, remembered that he no longer had it, so clutched at his elbows instead.

"Nikki, with me!" Max commanded. "We'll get David!"

The pair ran outside into the deserted, as usual, corridor.

"Where's the nurse's lounge?!" Max asked. Nikki shrugged.

"The office in the other ward?" She offered. "If not, we can find another nurse there who can help us."

The pair hurried back to children's ward two.

"What is it this time?" Tabii demanded.

"No time to explain!" Nikki shouted, and they hammered on the office door.

"David, are you in there?! David!"

"The door was thrown open to reveal a scowling David.

"What is it?" He said in an unusually harsh voice. "Had your fun yet?"

"No, well yes, but it's Dolph, he fell, he's-"

David's expression of hurt and anger instantly snapped into fear and worry. He dashed ahead of the pair of them and the three ran back to the ward. The structure was still tilting dangerously and the ward was a mess of chaos, but David didn't even seem to notice. He made a beeline for where Harrison and Nerris were crouched, looking nervous.

"Move aside!" David commanded and he knelt beside Dolph.

"David!" Dolph exclaimed. Then he muttered something else in German.

David gave a nod and softly replied in the same language.

"Hilf mir." Dolph groaned. "Wo ist Papa?"

David scooped him up in his arms. "Mach dir keine Sorgen, du wirst in Ordnung sein." David he said, then went over to the door, kicked it open and charged out.

"Shit." Neil muttered. "Will he be OK?"

"I hope so." Harrison muttered. "Argh, this was all MY idea! My fault!" He put his head in his hands.

The door crashed open.

"Alright you little shits, whoa, what the hell?!"

"Hi Gwen." Preston said gloomily.

"We made a bit of a mess of the place." Nurf admitted.

"Got that right!" Gwen exclaimed. "I just passed David in the hallway, you lot should be ashamed of yourselves!"

The kids looked shamefacedly at the ground.

"Come on guys." Gwen sighed. "Let's get this place cleaned up."

...

Cleaning up the ward took the whole rest of the afternoon and went well into the evening as well. Max, Harrison and Preston were just stacking the boxes in a corner when David returned at seven o'clock.

He was instantly met by a barrage of questions.

"What happened to him?"

"Is he OK?"

"Are you mad at us?"

"Who taught you to speak German?"

David sighed and waved them away.

"Kids, get into your beds." The kids gently slid into their beds. David sighed again, retrieved a chair and sat down.

"Guys, what you did today was really stupid. I can only imagine the scale as to what you pulled off today. Someone could have gotten seriously hurt. Someone could have gotten killed."

David's unusually harsh tone and grave expression was a shock. Even Ered and Nurf just looked at the floor in shame.

"And also, this incident is most likely going to be looked into. Gwen and I could lose our jobs because of what you did."

The kids were all in shock.

"We're sorry David." Space Kid muttered, and this was quickly repeated by the others. David sighed again.

"I guess I should be grateful you didn't do worse. Or that it didn't turn out worse. Dolph will be fine, the fall just pulled his stitches. After he comes out of surgery, he'll recover in the private room for a day or so. I can't imagine that he'll blame you, but," David looked at them sternly.

"If I were you, I'd spend the time it takes me to get your dinner, thinking about your actions."

David stood up, shot them one last stern look, then approached the door. "Happy Birthday Nerris." He said coldly. The way he said it was the worst emotional stab for Nerris, and she gently traced her fingers over the drawing Dolph had given her, trying not to cry.

David left the ward.

...

"How come you speak German?" Gwen asked as the two nurses retired to their bunks that night.

"My brother taught he. He's bilingual." David told her.

Gwen gave a little nod, and after a while of peaceful silence, she said: "I'm sorry David. I should have put up more of a fight when the kids kicked me out of the ward. If we lose our jobs, it's my fault."

David shook his head, only Gwen could see it.

"It's not your fault Gwen. It's mine. I should have seen it coming that Harrison would pull something off on that scale. I could have prevented it all!"

"He had good intentions, I suppose. Trying to give Nerris a good birthday and all that."

"Yeah, but..." David sighed. "I guess I'm just worried."

"Dolph will be fine, you said it yourself."

"No, it's not that..." David peered down at Gwen from his higher bunk. "I overheard the conversation when the hospital contacted his father, I think it was legally required or something. Anyway, I heard him shouting. He's threatening to sue the hospital over what happened, and if that comes into play, it's going to fall on our shoulders."

Gwen bit her lip in worry. "I remember when Dolph first arrived here. Shy little kid with the accent no one but you could understand. He told you about his father, didn't he?"

A horrible man to my ears." David nodded.

There was silence for a few more minutes.

"Well, I'm sure it'll be fine." David said cheerily.

"Well, I'm glad you're positive." Gwen sighed. "Well, night."

"Goodnight."

But as David lay in his bunk, he didn't feel very positive. In fact, he felt sure Dolph's father would come down on the hospital like a ton of bricks. And most of those bricks would end up on his head. Anyone would shove them down towards Harrison and the other kids, but David wasn't anyone. Sure, he'd be sad to lose this job he'd had for the last three years, but to protect the children, it seemed mandatory.

 **If you're interested in what Dolph and David's conversation was about, use google translate :)**

 **Oh and, by the way, this is my most popular story in terms of follows and favourites, so well done readers! :)**

 **Bye for now :)**


	11. Uninvited Guest

**I just want to thank you all so much for these reviews and favourites, really helping me out here! :)**

 **Guest, I managed to translate your review, I get the feeling you've reached the right conclusion about that! Thank you for reviewing! :)**

The next day for the kids in the ward was a boring one. No one was really in the mood for playing on phones or reading, so it was a bizarre sight, a bunch of nine pre-teens, actually talking to one another!

"So, what did your parents get you for your birthday?" Nikki asked Nerris as she, Nerris, Preston Max and Harrison all gathered at one end of the ward to pass the time.

"New board game sets." Nerris said. "Oh, and my dad brought this AWESOME jacket for me, like a proper Japanese robe, h showed it to me on visiting day, but my mum wouldn't let him leave it here. She thought it would get stolen." She rolled her eyes.

"Too true, because if I were not a nice person, I'd probably steal that." Preston muttered jealously, but still with his friendly smile.

Max rolled his eyes to Harrison, who grinned back.

"Well, at least I'm having a party when I get discharged pretty soon. I would invite you guys, but you know..." She grinned.

"I could be out by then!" Nikki protested. "

"Yeah, you'd only be sent back." Harrison told her. "I'm beginning to think you spend more time here than at home."

"Bit rich coming from you." Nikki said back. "You've been in here for, what, three months?"

"Two." Harrison corrected. "Yeah, but things aren't too good with my parents right now, so I'd rather be here."

"Are things good with any of our parents?" Preston asked sarcastically.

Only Nerris and Nikki looked around at the others, expecting them to disagree with Preston. But the three boys all just looked at each other, as if to say, yep, we've all been there.

Before the girls could ask though, the ward's door crashed open.

All the kids jumped and looked quickly towards the door.

A tall, unfamiliar man strode angrily through dressed in smart clothing and wearing a scowl.

"Where the fuck is my son?!" He demanded. Max saw his dark brown hair and blue eyes and guessed that this was Dolph's father. He, Preston and Nikki immediately positioned themselves to hide Nerris and Harrison.

"Guys, what's happening?" David asked in his usual cheery tone. Then his smile dropped as he laid eyes on the unexpected visitor. "Erm, hello sir. How can I-"

"Oh you can stop your bullshit right there!" Dolph's father snapped, striding forward. "It was just a good thing I was on temporary training leave from the fucking war in Pakistan when I got your call! I sent my son here to get better, not for stupid 'accidents' to endanger him."

"It really wasn't that bad!" Max protested, and David shot him a look saying, keep out of this.

"David, what the fuck's happening?" Gwen asked, emerging from the office. She laid eyes on the visitor and immediately made the connection. "Oh no."

"Mr Houston, I understand you're angry, but there are children here recovering and could I ask you to step outside..."

"You can take me to my son!" Dolph's father demanded.

"Right, erm, he's staying down the corridor," Dolph's father angrily left the room, followed by a nervous looking David. Gwen sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Well kids, I can say it's unlikely this incident will go unnoticed." She sighed sadly.

"We'll protect you Gwen!" Nikki stood up on Preston's bed, standing on his leg by accident and making him wince. "We'll testosterone!"

"You mean testify." Max corrected.

"Yeah, we'll stand up for you. Say that we kicked you out of the ward, no, knocked you out and tied you up!"

Gwen allowed herself a small laugh.

"We'll see how it goes." She sighed. "I need a drink." She headed back into the office.

Everyone was silent for a few moments.

Then,

"Guys, go to that wall." Ered called, gesturing with her head. "You can hear what goes on in the other room, through it."

"Cool!" Nikki gasped.

"Nikki, that's a bit-" Harrison protested, then sighed and went to join her.

"This will be interesting." Max said with a smirk as he and Nerris went to join the other two with their ears to the wall.

It was a quiet sound at first, but Max eventually made out the sound of Dolph's surprised German voice.

"Papa? What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?"

"I, erm..." It went quiet for a moment, and Max heard quiet shuffling as Dolph's father presumably sat down beside his son.

"What happened Dolph?" He asked, somewhat calmer. "I want to know. The hospital just told me you had an accident and had to get your stitches done again."

"I, err-" Max could practically see David biting his lip. "I fell out of my bed and crashed rather hard onto the floor. My fault really."

"Good on him." Nerris muttered happily.

"I raised you. I know when you're lying."

"Shit." Harrison muttered.

"I haven't seen you for a month, I could have changed."

"I find that hard to believe!" Max could tell the father and son were scowling at each other, and was reminded of his own father, for some reason.

"Well, that is what happened." Dolph said eventually in a slow and wary tone. Take it or leave it." He then muttered something in German that Max couldn't make out.

"I have been learning that stupid language!" His father snapped. It was silent for a moment or so, before anyone spoke again.

"I was joking." Dolph muttered.

"When you're older, I hope your jokes will be funnier!" His father snapped back.

"What did he say?" Nikki whispered.

"Do I look like I speak German?" Max whispered back.

There was another awkward silence behind the wall. Then it was David's voice.

"Well, um, so you to have caught up a bit, Mr Houston, if I could interest you in-"

"Not just yet!" Dolph's father snapped. "I want to know what happened from you!" He seemed to round on David.

"I, um..."

"Was it a targeted incident? Those kids back there did look rough!" Nikki had to duck away from the wall so the people in the next room wouldn't hear her laughing.

"Oh no, no, the kids are all good kids, and they like your son. He does the most wonderful art."

Unseen to the kids, Dolph immediately tensed and his father frowned.

"Really..." Dolph's father's voice changed, sliding dangerously back onto the borderline of rage. "Tell me more."

"Well, he always has his sketchbook..."

"David!" Dolph snapped quickly. Then, "He's exaggerating Papa, I don't-"

"I know when you are lying to me!" Max jumped at the instant rage in the man's voice. "I told you, no more drawing or whatever you do nowadays!"

"And I told you, it's all I'm good at!" Dolph snapped back, losing his temper as well. "If you were any good at being a parent, you'd know!"

"Now why don't we just-"

"SHUT UP!" Shouted both father and son. David backed off.

"Can't you remember art put you in this whole mess?!" Dolph's father snapped at his son.

"No, this argument did! If anything, you practically pulled the trigger!"

Silence. Absolute silence. Everyone in the ward could hear the argument now, even Gwen.

"I would never hurt you!" Dolph's father growled at him, seeming incredibly close to hitting his son.

"No, not physically." There was another moment of silence. "'I wish I could live with Mama!'"

Even more silence.

When Dolph's father spoke again, it was in a much calmer, more secluded voice.

"Dolph, you know that's not possible."

"Anything's better than living with you!"

"Like she'd want you!" A door slammed, as if the man had just stormed out.

"Shit." Max heard David mutter. "Dolph, are you-"

"Go away David!" Dolph snapped. He sounded like he was crying. "Just, hold on."

Max, Nerris, Nikki and Harrison had all been listening to the wall, and all jumped when they heard Dolph knock on it.

"I know you're there!" He snapped.

The four of them winced and hurried back to their beds. A few moments later, David reappeared, looking worn out.

"So I take it went badly?" Gwen asked sarcastically. David sighed and rubbed his neck.

"You could say that." He sighed. "But I don't think he'll be back here again."

 **Yep, that was accidentally WAY angstier than I intended, but there you go!**


	12. Dolph's Story

**This may be a teensy bit graphic because, well, someone gets shot.**

 **This is the story of how Dolph became a patient at Campbell Hospital.**

Papa was home back early, he could hear him on the stairs. Dang it!

He had mere seconds before the man himself appeared. Dolph scrambled to shove his foldable easle under his bed and the brushes under the covers. It would stain the sheets, but he would just change them before bed.

The door banged open and his father stormed in, obviously in a foul mood.

"I don't bloody believe it!" His father snapped. "They're sending me all the way to Pakistan! When my area is training, not the fucking field!"

"You, you're going to Pakistan?" Dolph asked nervously. His whole life, he had been moving back and fourth from army base to army base, country to country, because his father's job was to train soldiers, and that was what he did, anywhere they sent him. For the first two years and a half years of Dolph's life, he had been very busy and hadn't had much time for his son. Mama neither. Dolph had practically been raised by a few different soldiers who were tasked with babysitting him a few days each a week. This had been in Germany, so as a result, Dolph had learnt German before he had learnt English. Even now, his speech was peppered with German vocabulary and he had the thick accent, and it had taken a few more years for him to learn how to understand his native language.

But ever base, every new home, Papa had always been there for him. The war in Pakistan had been going on for ages. Would he ever see his father again?

Papa sighed and knelt down in front of his son.

"Can't be helped. Superior's orders. But you'll be fine, you'll just be staying here a bit longer than we meant to."

Dolph gave a small sigh. They were going to move to Spain next month. Dolph wanted to see Spain. And learn Spanish too, that would be exciting. Though he was less than ten years old, Dolph already spoke German, English and French, fluently.

"When will you be back?" He asked nervously.

"Hard to say. Could be months, maybe even a year before I can get back to you! The idiots!"

Dolph didn't really agree with his father's ranting, but gave a small nod, just to protect the man's temper. His father was about to stand up, when he frowned and noticed something.

"Is that paint on your shirt?"

"No!" Dolph tried to cover up the stain, but it was too late. His father's expression darkened.

"I FORBADE you from painting ever again!" He snapped. "But that's what you've been doing all day?! Not studying for you future?"

As he couldn't attend school, for obvious reasons, Dolph's father left him schoolwork every day for the boy to struggle through on his own.

"No, I just got it out last minute, I finished all my work." Dolph lied. But as usual, his father could see right through it.

"What did I tell you about art?!" He demanded furiously.

"That if I continued my only passion, people will think I'm gay." Dolph quoted. "Das ist Müll." He muttered.

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT SPEAKING GERMAN?!"

"That the language is a waste of time and I should have learnt English." Dolph said in his best impression of an American accent, which just came across as an over the top Texan.

His father gave an angry growl and strode over to Dolph's bed. Reaching underneath, he brought out his son's folding easel. Dolph looked at the ground. Now he was even more nervous than before, because, like most artists, he was terrified that people would think he work was rubbish. In this case, a row of Spanish dancers all in different colours, unfinished, but still a brilliant piece from a kid who hadn't even hit puberty.

After looking at the painting for a long while, his father raised it, and then brought it down over his knee, snapping the canvass in half.

"NO!" Dolph cried as his precious work fell to the floor in pieces.

"No more painting." His father said sternly. He then found the paintbrushes and chucked them on the floor as well.

Dolph felt tears pricking his eyes. He grabbed one of the brushes and clutched it in his small hand, stroking the bristles covered in red paint.

"That was the last thing she ever gave to me." Dolph said in a quiet voice.

"You'll get over it." His father told him. A sob escaped his son's lips. An angry sob.

"I hate you papa!" Dolph raised his head, tears falling from his bright blue eyes. "I FUCKING HATE YOU!" He jumped to his feet and ran to the small apartment door, throwing it open, running through and slamming it behind him.

Dolph ran down the stairs, past the bewildered soldiers, out of the main building and across the training grounds. He didn't know if his father was following him and he didn't care. He ran towards a chain link fence that was in his way. The corner was broken, peeling back to create a hole that a boy his size could just squeeze through.

Part of Dolph read the sign that said **DANGER! SHOOTING PRACTISE!**

But most of Dolph didn't really care.

He scrambled under the fence and carried on running through a field, before he became out of breath and stumbled. He could hear gunfire from far away.

Then it got closer.

And closer.

All of Dolph became very panicked now. He tried to turn and run back through the fence, but before he'd gone three paces, he felt something punch him in the stomach. He stumbled backwards, dropping the paint brush.

There was more red paint on his shirt. Where was it coming from?

It wasn't paint.

It was blood.

He was bleeding. How?

Dolph fell down as the pain started in his stomach. He gave a little gasp as he realised someone had shot him.

The people shooting had realised too, and they had run over, terrified that they had killed someone.

"Oh shit, that's Houston's kid!"

"What's he doing here?"

"Who shot..."

"Call an ambulance..."

Their voices were blurring in his mind, he couldn't see anymore. From very far away, he heard his father's shout.

"Dolph!"

...

...

...

When he woke up, it was different. All white and bright, but friendly. A man was there, a red headed, thin man, less scary than his father. This man was kind. He bought Dolph a sketchbook for his art when he had the strength to draw again. He understood German, and the two managed to have conversations. Eventually, Dolph got moved to the ward of other kids.

He hadn't had much experience with other kids.

But they seemed nice. Dolph decided that he liked other kids.

He had been told his father left for Pakistan.

He was glad. No one knew him as the army lieutenant's son here. Here, they were all just children.

And Dolph liked it that way.


	13. Midnight (well, eleven at night) Feast

**Whoa, I have NEVER had this many favourites on any story I have ever written! You readers are great :)**

"Yes!" David cried as he slammed down the phone on the receiver. "Gwen, we're saved!"

"Say what?" Gwen mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Dolph's father decided not to sue the hospital after all! Seems he just wants to forget about the whole incident."

"So do we." Gwen sighed, but smiled. "That is good news, but it's eleven at night David!"

"Who cares!" David cheered. "This is a cause to celebrate!"

"How many lattes have you drunk today?"

"A lot, but who cares?!"

Gwen sighed. Looked like she wasn't sleeping tonight.

"What's going on in there?" Came a shout from the ward, Space Kid.

"Yeah, some of us are trying to SLEEP!"

"Sorry kids." David stuck his head out of the office. "Gwen and me are just a little excited, that's all."

Max, who had been the second to shout, snorted and buried his head in his pillow with laughter.

"No, that's not, argh, I just mean the hospital isn't going to get sued after all and that's good news!"

"Yeah!" Nerris cried. "Let's have a feast to celebrate!"

"Nerris, it's-"

"Feast!" Space Kid jumped up on his bed. "Let's have rock cakes, my mum makes AWESOME rock cakes, or moon rocks as I say."

"Beer!" Nurf called, and Ered nodded in agreement.

"I suppose they're all up now." Gwen muttered. David sighed.

"OK kids, but we've got to be quiet. The ward next door will be sleeping. And no beer."

"I doubt it." Neil muttered, but he shifted himself up carefully so he could look awake. Even Ered lifted herself up as much as she could.

"I'll get some stuff from the kitchen." Gwen said with a smile. "David, you go get the man himself in here."

"Dolph?"

"Who else?"

Both nurses left the kids excited and laughing.

"I've got a six pack of beers under my bed." Nurf called. "Someone get them, discreetly."

"Oh yeah!" Max cheered, dashing down and grabbing the cans and tossing one to Nurf, giving another to Ered and taking one for himself.

"Get me one!" Neil called. "I could do with a drink."

"Me too, me too!" Nikki chanted. Max shook his head firmly.

"No way Nikki. You act like you're constantly drunk half the time anyway." He held a can out to Preston, who shook his head.

"No thank you. I have had bad experiences with alcohol."

Max put the rest of the cans back under Nurf's bed as David brought Dolph back, who looked tired, but excited.

"Woohoo, the hero!" Nikki cheered. "You showed your dad who's boss."

Dolph shrugged, but smiled.

"No one insults my artwork, I guess."

"What sort of food will we have?" Harrison asked David.

"Knowing Gwen, you'll all be on sugar rush until tomorrow morning." David told him. "Except maybe Nurf. In fact- whoa, is that beer?"

"Nope. Monster energy drink." Nurf said quickly, hiding the label on the can. Max, Neil and Ered all shoved theirs out of sight the best they could.

"Well anyhow, you'd better not eat too much because your surgery's tomorrow. And everyone else, don't go mad."

"We're already mad!" Nikki called.

"Yeah, totally insane!" Space Kid giggled. David rolled his eyes.

"I'm beginning to think that this was a bad idea." He muttered.

"Can't stop us now!"

"I'm back." Gwen called, entering. "Got everyone crisps and there's some biscuits in the office.

"Humph." Nikki muttered. "Some feast."

"It's a hospital. There's a limited budget." Neil told her. "I just feel bad for Nurf, he can't even eat right now!"

"Yeah, I can't imagine that." Nikki said, already opening her crisps and shoving monster munch down her throat.

"At least you can move properly." Neil gestured to his bandages. "'Cos every time I move myself properly, it hurts like a motherfucker."

"Really? Damn, when are you getting out of here?!" Max exclaimed.

"Ages to wait yet!" Neil sighed. "What about you?"

"Couple of weeks."

"Lucky."

"I'll come back and see you though. I don't have many friends apart from you guys."

"Me neither." Neil sighed, ripping open his own crisps. "Who could have known random accidents could have changed our lives."

Max knew his 'accident' had been attempting to change his life drastically, but he wasn't about to tell Neil that.

"Where's the biscuits Gwen?" Nikki called, having wolfed down her crisps at an animalistic fast rate.

"Damn, slow down Nikki!" Gwen called, leaning against the office door. "Some of the others haven't even started. Dolph, you need me to open that for you?"

"No, I've got it." Dolph managed to tear his packet open and took a few crisps in his hands. He seemed a totally changed person from the argument he'd had with his father that day. More... happy, less nervous.

Dolph seemed to notice Max was watching him.

"I know you guys were listening at the wall yesterday." He said matter-of-factly.

"You, you did?"

"Yeah, every time someone's in that room, everyone listens at that wall. Let me guess, you, Nikki, Harrison and Nerris."

"Damn you are clever."

"I'm three years younger than you and know three languages. I doubt you could hope to compete."

Max laughed a little. Then the pair became serious.

"So, what did happen to your mum?" He asked. Dolph looked down at his lap, frowning. "I mean, you don't have to tell me."

"No it's fine." Dolph sighed. Max realised both Nikki and Neil were listening as well.

"My mama was in the army as well, that's how my parents met." Dolph explained. "She was with me the first five years of my life. But then, life in the field got too much for her. She developed severe PTSD and left the armed forces, along with leaving me and papa. The last thing I heard, she was recovering in a special hospital. That was about nine months ago. She was the one who taught me to paint. I think, after she left, Papa couldn't stand to see art again. He hates it now."

"Well that was depressing." Nikki stated after a long and awkward pause. "Gwen, biscuits!"

"Manners Nikki!" David called from the other side of the ward, helping Ered. Nikki shrugged. It didn't seem like anyone had ever taught her manners. Max remembered Nikki's mum on visiting day, and the talk of her absent father. But here was David, lecturing her, but loving her at the same time. The perfect mix of strictness and love that every parent should have.

Should have.

Max thought about Neil's mother practically cutting her son out of her life. He thought about Dolph's asshole of a father.

He thought about his own parents.

These kids didn't have love at home. They probably went to hospital, expecting the same thing. But just how Max had expected the ward to be organised and unchaotic, they found the opposite.

Like David and Gwen were parents to all of them.

No, that was ridiculous. Max only had his birth parents. He took a quick look around at the two nurses and took a sip of beer.

"If you get drunk, Gwen will kill you." Nikki commented jealously.

"Relax Nikki, it's just one can." His own parents had never cared when he drank at home, but he got the feeling Nikki knew what she was talking about.

...

Nurf wasn't usually jealous of the other kids, like, those losers? Seriously?

But now, they got good food, but David didn't let him have any because of his dumb operation! No one at home cared, well his sister might, but Melanie was too young to order him about and besides, it wasn't like he'd see her again in a hurry.

"Are you nervous for tomorrow?" Came the familiar, caring and above all, annoying, voice. Nurf rolled his eyes.

"No. Nothing gets me fussed. I don't give shit." He told David. Haha, what a lie!

"Oh it's OK to be scared Nurf. But it's a big part of your life and when it's over, you'll be feeling much better."

Seriously? Did this guy ever quit?

Well, it was nice to have a kind man in your life, Nurf supposed.

 **Yeah, I know that wasn't much on Nurf POV, but I really wanted to get this chapter out, as I planned for it to be released on the same day as Dolph's backstory but, that failed! Enjoy your reading :)**


	14. Pre-Operation Madness

**OK, I don't know who these guest reveiwers are, but they are making my day!**

 **Fanatic: OK that made me laugh! But Veronica can dream! It was the musical, because I haven't seen the film, though I want to :) Heh heh, I know that feeling. Hope you got some rest.**

 **amliee: I'm sorry but that story shall not be told for a while yet, but I can drop in hints here and there about Max's accident. Thanks, I try :)**

"OK guys, today's a big day for a special patient!" David was ruffled and looked sleep deprived, but still seemed as enthusiastic and energetic as ever. Max yawned. He didn't feel the same way. He wanted his coffee, but fortunately he had treatement today. He could grab a cup and chug it before he passed out again. Max had gone for three injections through the course of the past week and fainted every time. It seemed he didn't mix well with hospitals.

"Today is Nurf's big operation, so I want you all to wish him luck!" David gestured towards the biggest patient, who was sat in his bed, staring at his lap with an embarrassed scowl.

"It's not that big a deal." He grunted.

"What are you having done?" Neil asked as David went off to sort some paperwork.

"Are they pulling all your teeth out? Or inserting false bones? Or-"

"Shut up Nikki."

"Just a transplant." Nurf said with a shrug. "Then I can finally go home, away from all you losers."

"Thanks a bunch." Nerris said sarcastically. "But if you haven't had surgery yet, how come you can't walk?"

Silence. Every patient was suddenly waiting for Nurf's response.

"Oh shut up, leprechaun!"

"Elf. The only one short enough to be a leprechaun is Dolph."

"Hey!" Dolph exclaimed from further down the ward

"You're still shorter than me, little elf."

"Hey break it up people." Harrison stood up. "Everyone's shorter than you Nurf. No need to be rude about it."

Nurf rolled his eyes.

"You just like protecting your little girlfriend. Honestly, you two should get a room!"

Harrison blushed, his whole face turning red. "Shut up. At least I have friends."

"What, you mean chemotherapy drugs?"

The whole ward gasped. Nurf had always been a sort of antisocial guy, but kind of more on Max's level. He hadn't really been mean to anyone on the ward before, much less on this offensive scale.

"What the HELL do you know?!" Harrison snapped. "How would you like to have cancer?!"

"Not particularly, I'd rather like to keep my good looks."

"OK, that's enough." Ered sat up, seeming to be taking charge. "Harrison, sit down, Nurf, shut up. Nerris, that sword isn't going to do a lot of damage."

Nerris scowled as she stashed her foam sword back under her bed, muttering about her granddad's collection.

"Don't tell me what to do, fag's child."

Everyone's mouth dropped open. Never had anyone really commented or asked about the two men who visited Ered every week. They all had assumed her parents were gay and thought nothing of it. But here was the most quiet of them all, the first to even mention it, and in such a cruel way too."

Ered's eyebrows narrowed.

"WHAT, did you say?" She said in a very dangerous and low tone. The whole ward held their breath. They all knew that Ered had a wrath usually kept quiet, but it seemed she was about to unleash it.

"You can't tell me what to do. Your dads are such losers they can't find women to spend their lives with."

Ered snapped. She lunged with her free hand for a glass on her bedside table and hurled it at Nurf's head. He ducked and the glass smashed on the wall above his head, showering him in broken glass.

"What the fuck is going on?! "Gwen exclaimed, ducking out of the office. "Ered!"

"Don't you DARE shoot homophobia at me, Gaylord! At least I have parents who bother to visit, you dickwad!"

"OK, everyone calm down!" David ran into the ward. "What's going on guys?!"

"Him!" Ered shouted angrily, pointing at Nurf. "Coming out with cancer insults, height digs and on top of that, he's a fucking homophobic!"

While Gwen attempted to calm Ered down, David went over to Nurf and spoke to him. He seemed calm and supportive, but Nurf scowled at him and shoved him backwards.

"Shut up, you liar!"

David landed on his backside with a shocked squeak.

"OK, this is out of hand." Gwen came over and helped him up. "You've got like, five minutes until he's supposed to be down at the operating theatre, take him now."

David sighed.

"Come one Nurf, I think we need to talk on the way down."

David looked round the ward at Max.

"It's time for you to go down to doctor Chira too Max. Come on."

Max felt his stomach squirm at the prospect of being alone with David and Nurf. He wasn't too sure on what Nurf would come out with to hurt him, his ethnicity, perhaps? His anti-social attitude, the fact his parents never visited? Or the bandages up his arms?

No, only Max knew what happened there, and it was none of anyone else's business. He slid out of his bed and followed David and Nurf out of the ward.

"Alright Nurf, this isn't like you. And it wasn't very nice, you hurt Ered, Harrison and Nerris's feelings."

"Whatever. Won't have been the first time, will it?"

The three reached the lift and David sighed, kneeling down by Nurf's bed as the teenage boy scowled with his arms folded.

"I can tell something's bothering you Nurf. But I can also tell that you're not going to tell me, and that's fine. But whenever you feel ready to talk about it, I'll be here."

Nurf scowled at Max. "Does he have to be here?"

"Hey, I called the lift, not totally useless."

"Ain't gonna work David." The three jumped and turned to see a man coming out of Children's Ward two, tall with auburn hair, accompanied by Tabii.

"What do you mean?" David asked.

"Lift's broken." The man, probably a nurse, said. "We've gotta take the stairs."

"Hurry up Mr Woodscout." Tabii complained. "My mum'll be waiting."

"Where are you off?" Max asked.

"Home baby!" Tabii cheered. "Ha, you unlucky punk!"

Max rolled his eyes, but waved her a goodbye.

"Lift broken?!" David exclaimed. "But how are we going to get down now?" He sighed and looked down at Nurf. "Can you walk yet?"

Nurf shrugged, looking shy all of a sudden. "Kind of. But I haven't practised stairs and it'll hurt like a motherfucker."

David gave the language a frown, but held out a supporting hand. "You'll be fine, I know you will."

Nurf bit his lip and gently swung his legs out of bed. His pyjama bottoms were short and you could see bandages around his kneecaps. Max watched as he extended an arm towards David and the nurse gently helped him to his feet. Nurf winced as he managed to stumble down the hall, relying on David. It was strange, Max thought. Nurf felt free too bully and torment others, but when it came down to it, he really did need their help.

"Come on Max." David called. "We may need your help."

Getting down the stairs was a very tricky task, which did require Max's help and a lot of pain on Nurf's behalf. But eventually, the trio made it and limped over to a row of chairs. Nurf and Max sighed as they sank into them.

"I'll go find the doctor." David told them. Max looked away from Nurf. He was probably supposed to be getting injected right now, or drinking coffee, or passed out on the floor, as usual. But, for some reason, he didn't feel like abandoning Nurf here.

"So, quite a task huh?" He muttered. Before he could even think, Nurf span around in his seat to face Max.

"You EVER mention what happened again and I will tear you limb from limb!" He growled. Max held up his hands in a surrendering gesture.

"Calm down! I won't I promise!"

Nurf sighed and tapped his fingers nervously against his leg.

"Thanks." He muttered eventually. "And... sorry, I guess. I'm working out my issues."

Max gave a slow nod, wondering where this was going. Nurf opened his mouth again. Great, an entire emotional overload onto the poor ten year old. Crap, what if he started crying on Max?

"Guess, I'm just worried it's gonna go wrong or something, like I'll be injured for the rest of my life, or stuck with diabetes for the rest of my life. It's not a very inviting prospect. Fifteen years and it just gets old. But, if I don't come out alive, then who's gonna look after my sister? The night I came here, last time I saw her, she's stuck in the foster system now and it's kind of my fault, but I'm glad. She doesn't deserve a brother like me, or a family like the one we have. I hope she gets to move on, you know, away from me."

Nurf looked up at Max, who bit his lip, waiting for Nurf to continue.

"And that's what makes me mad, I guess. That she gets away from it all, but I'm too old, plus I can't even walk! I'll have to live my shitty life, but she gets away from it all. So, jealous, but at the same time, glad for her too, in a way. Is that possible?"

"Erm, sure, sure."

Nurf nodded and continued. "I know I'll probably never see her again, but I did send her a text, telling her I was going for surgery today, well, texted her social worker. She said good luck, so that's good."

"Yeah, it is." Max nodded. "Well, that's what you were mad about earlier. And David as well?"

"Yeah, the guy's an idiot."

Max nodded. "I know it's embarrassing, I won't tell the others."

"Thanks. I don't know why the hell I even told you."

"Hey, all the best councillors have shitty family lives too."

Nurf gave a small laugh. "So, what's so shitty about yours?"

"Well..." Max didn't know if he would have told Nurf or not if David hasn't returned with a wheelchair.

"It's time Nurf. You ready?"

Nurf gave a nod. "We'll get it over with." He managed to transfer himself from the chair to the one with wheels. "Max, could you tell the others that I'm sorry, and tell Ered I didn't mean what I said. I was just... mad."

"Sure." Max nodded. "Good luck mate."

"You too."

Max gave a sigh as Nurf disappeared. He was glad he only had injections and passing out to worry about!


	15. Nurf's Story

**Something tells me this chapter is also a tad graphic, so... yeah :)**

 **This is how Nurf became a patient at Campbell Hospital.**

"Hey assholes, I'm home!" This was how Gaylord Nurfington usually entered the family flat after school. Slam the door, chuck the keys on the floor and kick his schoolbag to the kitchen. "Hello? Anyone?"

"Keep it down, I've got a hangover!" Nurf's dad called from the kitchen. Nurf entered and observed the man. He wasn't as stocky as him and his mum, nor was he ginger, but brunette and lanky, like Nurf's sister, Melanie. Nurf would rather have had a name like that than the one he had been given. It had originally been a joke between his parents, but had sort of stuck.

Nurf kicked his bag out of the way and looked in the fridge. "Hey, you seen my insulin?"

"Think it got smashed." His dad said casually, taking a sip of his beer. Nurf dropped the bottle of milk he had been holding.

"WHAT! I need that."

His dad shrugged. "Your mum used to think she needed heroin, maybe sharing needles and shit is how you turned out to fucked up."

"I'm not a fucking druggie!"

"You'll be fine."

"I'm your son!" Nurf snapped. He knew his dad was an asshole and a drunkard, but Nurf depended on that! How could he take his son's condition so lightly.

"Oh shut up, I've had a shit enough day already without your whining. Now clean up the milk."

Nurf bent down to pick up the plastic bottle, then stopped. His dad was evidently drunk by the tone of his voice, but not aggravated. A sad drunk. He'd done something that he regretted. He'd already taken his anger out on something.

"How did you smash my insulin?" Nurf asked in a dangerous tone. Then, "Where's Melenie?"

No response. His dad simply took another swig of beer.

Nurf ran, to the bedroom at the other end of the flat that his sister sometimes wanted him to share with her. He stopped at the door just long enough to hear a sound he dreaded and knew well. The sound of a young child crying.

"Melenie?!" Nurf cried as he kicked the door open. His sister was curled in a ball on the floor, sobbing. She looked up and Nurf was instantly shocked by two things.

His sister's eyes were so red it was apparent she had been crying for hours.

She had a black eye.

"Sis, what happened?" Nurf asked gently, sitting down next to her. There was blood on her face, and a thick scab there. The glass tube he kept his insulin in, he supposed.

Melenie stopped crying, but shook gently, staring at the floor. Nurf wrapped his arm around her.

"Come on, you can tell me."

He rubbed her shoulder until she stopped shaking.

"I messed up." She whispered.

"What?"

"It was my fault. He said-"

"NO!" Nurf looked her in the eyes. "It was NOT your fault. He shouldn't hit kids, OK? No one should hit kids."

"How do you-"

"I'm not as smart as they make out, but still have brains. You know he's battered me enough times."

"He sent me to get beers from the shop." Melenie whispered. "He was in a bad mood, so I went and they refused so... I came back and he got mad. He threw your needles at me and I cried and annoyed him and it's all my fault..." Melenie burst out sobbing. "I'm so sorry Nurf!"

"Not your fault." Nurf muttered stiffly, clenching his fists. "Never your fault sis, you hear me?"

But Melenie wasn't finished. She clutched at her side.

"When I fell, he told me to get up, and I tried, but I couldn't and he kicked me until I crawled her and-"

"I'll kill him." Nurf whispered. "I'll fucking kill him!"

"Nurf-"

"Melenie, get in the cupboard, lock yourself in and don't come out until I come and get you."

"What are you doing?"

"He's gone too far. It's bad enough when he batters me, but I won't let him come near you ever again. Go, cupboard, now."

Nurf left his sister hidden in the cupboard and walked to the kitchen, murder in his eyes. he dug in his pocket for his pocket knife. Nurf had been expelled twice and excluded too many times to count for using that thing, but he was about to use it in a way he had never used it before.

"Hey asshole!" Nurf called, entering the kitchen. "I have a question, HOW THE FUCK COULD YOU DO THAT TO A SEVEN YEAR OLD KID!"

His dad shrugged. "She got what she deserved. Just forget about it." Nurf grabbed the beer out of his hand and chucked it at the wall.

"Never. You're about to get what you deserve, you ignorant cunt!"

His dad laughed and stood up. "Oh you want a go, Gaylord?" He rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular arms. Nurf already had short sleeves. He was heavier than his father, but hoped to use this to his advantage.

Nurf ran at his father, and swung his fist up to hit him, but his father blocked it and punched him in the stomach, but Nurf only stumbled and was glad for the first time in his life about the layer of fat that covered his stomach. He kicked his father hard in the stomach and followed up with a punch in the neck. His father stumbled back and Nurf saw murder in his eyes. He kicked his son to the ground and grabbed something off the kitchen counter.

A bread knife.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" He snarled, and Nurf scrambled back in fear. "I'll show you. Fifteen years of raising a creature like you and this is what I get in return? I tried to give you the best future, so you could end up like your dad!"

Nurf growled. "I will never be like you. I would never hurt my child!" He took a deep breath and chucked his knife away.

"If you truly want to show what kind of a father you are, put down the knife. It's not too late."

His father's eyes narrowed. "Coward." He snarled, and swiped down at Nurf's legs. Nurf howled in pain as the tendons underneath his kneecaps were struck and cut. There was blood at once. It hurt like shite. Nurf felt faint and woozy. He hadn't had his insulin at all today. He felt like he was going to pass out. His father knelt down by him with a sadistic grin.

"Showed you, little asshole."

Little, like Melenie. Little enough to batter.

No, big asshole. Big enough to batter him. Nurf reached and grabbed the knife out of his father's hand and with the memory of his sister's tears in his brain, stabbed his father in the chest.

The man gasped and fell back. Nurf hadn't reached the heart, but he was still injured. Nurf gripped his knees, felt his own blood on his hands. His vision was swimming. Nurf tried to take deep breaths, but was out before he could even open his mouth.

...

When he woke up, his knees still hurt like a motherfucker, and his face too. Nurf managed to talk to the doctors in a while, and saw his beaten reflection. Bruises and black eyes. Yippee.

Nurf asked for his sister. No answer. His father? None.

Eventually, a police woman came to his bedside and questioned him. Nurf told her everything, and in return, she told him some. His sister had been the one to call the ambulance, after coming out of the cupboard when the fight went quiet. She was now living in a foster home and needed time to adjust, so it was better if she didn't see her brother for a bit. Nurf agreed to this. He also learnt something else.

His father was dead. Hadn't survived being stabbed in the lung. Nurf was surprised by how little he cared.

The policewoman had informed him that he would be on trial after he recovered. He might go to jail. This didn't really bother Nurf, it was a roof over his head and he was tough enough to survive in there. But the thought of ending up just like his mum scared him. So Nurf put it off as long as he could by requesting a permeant cure for his diabetes.

Because maybe then, he'd be the one who everyone felt sorry for. The pitiful child.

The child who got a visit from his sister.


	16. A game of bullshit

**Random-Idiot: Have you read my stories? I use that language all the time in my fics! Yeah, but Nurf's behaviour has to come from somewhere. Thanks for reviewing :)**

Max awoke with a yawn and discovered that he was lying face down on the floor. He spent a moment trying to figure out what he was doing down there, then when he couldn't, picked himself up. He heard a small laugh from the other side of the ward and turned to see Harrison sat up in his bed, looking pale.

"You see how I ended up down there?" Max asked. Harrison nodded.

"Been up all night. Saw you tossing around and pulling all the blankets onto the floor. It's a good thing you don't have a more serious-" Harrison choked suddenly and grabbed a bucket off the floor. He turned his face away from Max to throw up. Max tried to avert his eyes to give Harrison some privacy. When Harrison was done, he lay back limply on his bed.

"You OK?"

"Fine." Harrison muttered. "Been at it all night, couldn't get to sleep, gave up on emptying that bucket eventually. I think I must of woken Nerris a dozen times. My stomach feels like it's gonna rip free."

Max winced. Harrison was good at making others cringe at certain moments. He remembered back to the nightmare he'd had that night and shuddered. Visiting day again today and the thought of operations from yesterday had probably triggered it, and Max did not want to live that experience again. For a ten year old, he'd suffered enough already.

Max noticed that Harrison was watching him, and turned away, scrambling back into his bed and looking around at Nikki and Neil. Neil was snoring gently, very still as if to keep the pain away from his burns at all times, and Nikki was spread-eagled on her back, her arms out in a strange fashion. One of her casts had been removed yesterday. She would be going home soon. By the time she landed herself back, Max would probably be gone as well. He made a mental note to give her his address, as he didn't own a mobile.

"Up and at em guys!" Max jumped slightly to hear an over excited voice coming from the nurses end of the ward, but it didn't sound quite right.

"Gwen?" He asked, bewildered. "Are you drunk?"

"Nope!" Gwen's wide smile remained in fixed place. "David sent me to get you guys up and breakfasted, then I'm off, suckers!"

"Day off?" Came Neil's sleepy voice from next to Max, and Gwen nodded.

"Gonna catch a movie with friends, then a concert, and dinner, gonna be epic!" She cheered. "Enjoy family bonding kids." She laughed. "Oh, Nikki, your mum called to say she's busy working today and can't stop by. And Dolph-"

"Back to Pakistan?"

"Uh hu."

Dolph grinned a little and rummaged for his sketchbook.

David appeared behind Gwen. He waved enthusiastically at the kids with his usual grin, but said nothing.

"Oh yeah, and David's lost his voice."

Everyone's mouth fell open.

"No fucking WAY!" Max cheered. "Hey David, what's two plus two, haha, can't answer." He fell back onto his pillows in peals of laughter. The kids looked at each other grinning.

"I speak sign language." Preston called. "If that's helpful."

David nodded and his hands spelled out a message. Preston squinted.

"He wants us to eat up and to let Nikki know they're taking her other cast off today."

Nikki, who was usually the most hyperactive on the ward, was flopped on her pillows looking glum.

"Hey, what's up?" Neil asked as Max recovered from his laughing fit.

"Busy at work, my ass." Nikki sighed. "She'll have a new boyfriend or girlfriend, I'll bet, and I'm probably going home later today.

Max and Neil looked at each other.

"At least it's a change of scenery." Neil offered. Nikki rolled her eyes.

"Well, Neil's parents aren't coming today and mine won't be either, so we can have some time together." Max said. Nikki shrugged, but seemed to cheer up slightly. Over on the other side of the ward, Harrison had refused breakfast, and was talking to Nerris, but suddenly jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. David, looking concerned, followed him out.

"What's the matter with top hat?" Nikki asked aloud.

"Apparently spent the night throwing his guts up." Max told her. "I kind of hope he's OK."

"Kind of?"

Max watched Nerris look into Harrison's bucket, make a face, then hurry to Gwen to tell her something. Gwen swore and the two followed David into the bathroom. They were there for so long, Max went round to collect everyone's empty breakfast plates and dump them back on the trolley before Gwen emerged.

"Guys, Harrison's not feeling very well, so he's spending the day upstairs." She said. "Your parents will be arriving soon, I've got to go." She went to the office to grab her coat.

"Not well?" Neil exclaimed. "Oh shit, this could be bad."

"He'll be fine." Nikki said, sitting cross legged on her sheets. "He always is. We all know he throws up all the time, and it's not the first time he went to the isolation ward."

"Yeah, but I overheard what Nerris said. He'd been throwing up so hard he coughed up a load of blood."

Max and Nikki made a face.

"Oh crap, parents time." Max sighed. They watched the usual crowd arrive, and Gwen managed to pick out Harrison's mum and dad, but they left pretty quickly. She sighed, took one last look back, then left the ward. Max, Nikki and Neil spent the rest of the morning chatting and playing cards. Max liked the feel of being in a friendship group, and was about to put down an excellent cheat in a game of bullshit that he was winning, when an unfamiliar pair arrived in the ward.

"Urgh, I can't tell who the nurses are in this chaos." A young woman sighed. The small girl stood by her, looking round.

"I can't see him in here." She sighed. Max turned towards them.

"Hey, are you two looking for Nurf?" He called over to them. The girl nodded excitedly.

"I get to see my big brother at last!" She cheered happily. Max couldn't help but smile down at her, this girl's attitude was the very embodiment of a child's innocence.

"He just had surgery yesterday, he'll be recovering in the private room down the hall. I can take you guys."

"Oh please." The woman nodded, looking tired. "I'm just the social worker, I don't get paid enough for this shit."

"Three sevens." Max put his cards down. "Keep playing guys." He jumped off the bed and accompanied Melenie and the woman out into the hall. He caught the girl looking at his bandages and desperately wanted his sleeves to be longer.

"What happened to your arms?" She asked.

"Fell on broken glass." Max said quickly. "Just in here, I think."

He rapped on the door.

"Nurf, is that you in there?"

"What?" Came the familiar tone of the teenage boy from the other side. "I'm busy.

"You've got visitors."

"I don't care."

"Gaylord?" Max jumped to hear the seven year old girl speaking in a sassy, grown up voice. "Open up the door or I'm gonna lose it!"

"Melenie!" Max heard Nurf cry from the other side of the door, and he opened it, letting the girl run in and hug her brother. He smiled to watch it, and saw the social worker smile too.

"Hey, where you been all month?" Nurf ruffled her hair affectionately, looking pale and tired, but happy.

"They said I was too 'traumatized' or some bullshit." Nurf frowned.

"Language sis."

"Sorry. Is what they said about dad, true?"

Nurf sighed and nodded. "Yes. He's not here anymore. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

His sister hugged him.

"It's OK. You were so brave. I want to be brave like you one day."

"No you don't. You want to forget all about me. I'm not a role model you want to follow, sis."

She shook her head determinedly.

"Never. We'll always have each other, Gaylord."

"Shut it, you little bread muffin."

Melenie giggled. Max realised he was still watching with that stupid smile on his face, and snapped out of it.

"Let's give them some privacy." He said, and the woman nodded. The two left the room. The woman waited on the other side of the door while Max returned to his card game and won, though Nikki was cheating a lot towards the end. Nerris still wasn't here, he noticed, nor Harrison.

Max hadn't a clue as to how dangerous cancer was, but Harrison was probably in pretty bad shape.

Neil was hoping that he was OK, he didn't like others to feel pain. After he lost Chucky (Neil had no doubt that he was dead by this point) Neil hadn't wanted to lose anyone else.

But as David came over to them with a task in mind, the ward door burst open to reveal Snake from the other ward.

"Where's the nurse!" He snapped quickly to Nikki, who pointed. David motioned for Snake to speak.

"Miss Priss sent me." Snake said. "She said they need you. Chucky's woken up."


	17. The cancer patient

**Oh my f***, THE TRAFFIC FOR THIS STORY IS F***CKING INSANE! Over 1000 ALREADY! Wow, thank you all so much, that really made my day, and I showed all my friends at school, even the one who repeatedly dissed ff was impressed. How did this random, unstructured AU get this much publicity?!**

 **Mikagamer: It really depends, I'm writing four stories right now, so most of the time, it's once every three or four days, though if I'm stuck on one of have to go somewhere for the day/weekend, then it could take longer. Sorry.**

 **Guest: No, no, I wouldn't do that! Would I? (internally questioning my writing motives because I am undecided right now). :)**

 **ReadyWhenYouAre: Hi again, thanks, I feel that moment was kind of delayed, but I'm glad someone liked it :) Yep, a game of cheats is a good way for friends to bond, I suppose. There's be more moments down the line like that, probably. Yep, hope, he needs hope, poor kid. And yes, someone picks up on my use of cliffhangers, they're, like, my speciality.**

 **Just a quick note for you all, I don't really know what it's like to have cancer. None of my friends have cancer, I don't have cancer and I get the feeling I'll get it wrong or offend someone. So if anything offends you in this chapter, I'm really sorry and I'll go fix it right away if you let me know.**

When Nerris had come to the hospital, she had been sure it would be an in and out experience, just a quick few ten or so days, then she would be back into her regular schooling and DMing. But now she sat by the unconscious boy's bed, waiting, hoping, begging for him to wake up.

"Nerris?" Nerris jumped to see her mum in the doorway, her dad just behind.

"Mum!" Nerris cried and ran to her mother, burying her face into the woman's shirt.

"Oh my baby." Her mum hugged her close. "I'm so sorry."

"He's not dead." Nerris said. "Harrison won't die, he can't, he just can't!" She sniffed and wiped her eyes. Funny, the first time she'd met him, Harrison had been crying. Now it was her turn.

Nerris's dad put a hand on her shoulder. "Where's your friend's parents?" He asked. "Shouldn't they be here, I think I saw them earlier." Nerris shrugged.

"Harrison said they have a... difficult relationship." Her parents looked at each other in confusion. Their little family was so close, they would never be able to imagine what Harrison went through with his family. Why he chose to live in a crappy hospital wing, instead of at home.

"Harrison's parents-" She began, but was cut off by a sudden movement from behind her.

"Mum?" Harrison murmured from behind his oxygen mask. Nerris gasped and dashed to his side.

"Harrison? Are you OK?" She asked anxiously. Harrison's head twitched a little.

"Didn't mean to. Jackson, where are you..." He faded into unconsciousness again. Nerris bit her lip and clutched his hand.

"Nerris, honey, what happened with his parents." Her mum took Nerris's hand. "Even if I argued with you, I'd still he here if-"

"Harrison said his parents hate him." Nerris suddenly blurted. Her parents looked shocked.

"What?"

"He told me that his brother... disappeared one day, and they blame him. They were kind of scared of him, and hated him too and, well, they sort of tried, they visit him every week, but, it seems they can't bear to come here and act like they're normal parents with their normal dying son!"

Her parents looked at each other in shock. Nerris turned to Harrison, who was still unconscious, his breath rattling in and out, the machine practically breathing for him. It looked like she was about to end up like Neil, with what happened to Chucky.

...

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Neil gasped, his mouth falling open. Nikki and Max gazed at Snake like he was crazy. David stared with wide eyes. "No, no, you're kidding me, this is some kind of sick joke, I, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, MAN?!"

Snake nodded. "We need you sir." He told David. David nodded and left the ward, Snake at his heels.

"Oh come ON!" Neil pounded his fist on the matress. "What is going on, how can he be awake, he's dead! I know he's dead!"

Max bit his lip. "I saw him." He said very quietly.

"You WHAT?!"

"I saw him." Max raised his voice slightly. "On Nerris's birthday, when we went to get cardboard. We went to the other ward and... Chucky was in there."

Neil's mouth fell open. "You kept that from me?!" He exclaimed, his voice filled with anger and hurt. Max sighed.

"I know, I shouldn't have-"

Neil looked away from Max in disgust.

"Guys, we have a situation." Nikki reminded them, and they turned to see everyone in the ward looking at them, kids, parents and all.

"Oh boy."

"Guys, what's going on?" Space Kid asked. "Where did David go?"

"Oh, erm, there's a bit of a situation in the other ward." Max said. "He had to go help, but things'll be fine here."

"Where's the female nurse?"

"Day off. But, don't worry folks, me and Nikki here can keep an eye on the situation." Max got out of his bed, and Nikki did the same.

"What are you guys going to do?" Dolph asked sarcastically. Max shrugged.

"Nothing's too urgent right now, but I'll see if we can pick up dinner in a bit." Nikki said, wiggling her free arm with triumph. "Looks like I don't get to go home today."

"On the contrary." The ward jumped and turned to the doorway. A blonde haired man stood there, wearing the nurse's uniform and a broad smile. "I appreciate the effort sonny, but I got sent here to keep an eye on stuff. You know, since David is preoccupied at the moment." he cricked his neck and gave a strange grin. "Now back into your bed, kid."

Max scowled, but there was something about this guy that just didn't sit right with him. Not right at all. He stayed put.

But the adults seemed reassured that an actual adult was now in charge. They carried on chatting to their kids as if it was all normal. But the hair on the back of Max's neck was prickling as the man turned to him again.

"I said back to your bed."

"Who the fuck are you, anyway?"

"Oh, forgive me, my name is Daniel."

...

The evening came and her parents had to leave. They said Nerris could leave the hospital any day now, but she was staying put. She wouldn't leave Harrison. Gently she rubbed his hand. She didn't know what had even happened to her friend. One minute, they were planning a trip in the holidays. The next he ran to the bathroom and... well, the scene in there hadn't been pretty. He had been gagging over the toilet, sick and blood everywhere. Nerris had watched in horror as Harrison fell back, unconscious. David had desperately shaken him by the shoulders, and with one look at Gwen, declared it a medical emergency. They had gotten him out through a back door and Nerris had refused to let her friend go alone.

Nerris looked down at Harrison's pale face.

"Come on, please wake up. I know you Harrison, you think you burden medical services, you think no one likes you and you'll never be as good as other magicians, well you're wrong! You're one of my favourite people and your magic is truly amazing. Your parents should be proud, because, well..." Nerris had to clear her throat. "I'm proud of you Harrison."

She blinked several times, and had to turn away from the body in the bed. When she turned back, she saw something she never expected to see.

Harrison's green eyes were open.

"Harrison!" Nerris gasped. "You, you're OK!"

He gave a weak smile. "I, I think." He muttered, his breath rattling. "What happened?"

"You, passed out, remember?" Harrison's brow furrowed, and he shook his head. Slowly, Nerris noticed, and weakly too. He hadn't got a lot of strength and had totally sicked his guts up.

"I should get you some food or something." Nerris said, rising.

"No. Stay. Nerris, did you mean what you said? About being proud of me?"

Nerris shifted from one foot to the other. "Oh, you heard that?"

"It's what made me open my eyes." He gave a little smile. "No one has ever said that to me before, it's, well, nice."

She gave a relieved smile. "I'm just so glad you're OK."

"Me too. Did my parents show, or... no, I thought not."

"They should have been here." Nerris cleared her throat. "Mine were and.. they asked about you." Harrison stiffened.

"What, did you-"

"I, I told them Harrison. What you told me and..." She turned away from him. "They said, if worst comes to the worst, you could leave their care and..." She couldn't bring herself to say it.

"And what?"

"And live with us."

 **I wanted to put a bit of Chucky in this chapter, but I feel like there's enough going on already so, yep, next chapter we can have some David POV and Chucky :) And a random idea for him came to me that I'm going to work into this story now. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed :)**


	18. Brothers

**Don't worry readers, I wasn't going to make Daniel a dangerous cult leader, just a little plot point because I got a moment of writer's block.**

 **KeepItASecretOK: Here be update, mien little reader! Sorry, but that plot point won't come until the end, most likely, and there's a lot of kids to get through before that! But there is an ending to this fic I have planned, it won't go on permanently :) Thanks for reviewing :)**

 **Seen the description for episode 8? Weird or what?!**

David at first, hadn't believed it, another kid playing a prank, the girls from the next ward were known for that. But the nurses next door were far too strict for the kids to actually LEAVE the ward.

So he had ran after Snake, and was glad too. The boy had been true to his word, the door leading to Chucky's special room was open and the figures of the two nurses, Miss Priss and Mr Woodscout, were seen inside.

David gave a small wave to announce his arrival, wishing he could still speak.

"Oh good you're here David!" Mr Woodscout announced in his broad voice. "Chucky, you remember David?"

"Huh?" Chucky looked half asleep. "Umm, yeah, don't remember much, to be honest." Well, the boy had been in a coma for over a month, it was a surprise he could even speak.

David sat next to Chucky and tried to reassure him with his eyes. You're safe Chucky, you're gonna be fine, you can go home to your parents, see them again (even though his parents had never come to visit him), you're gonna be fine.

It seemed to work, as Chucky took a deep breath and smiled a little.

"Lost your voice David?"

David nodded sheepishly and Miss Priss gave an aggravated sigh.

"Great. I could really do with some more cane sugar right about now." David and Mr Woodscout frowned at her, then turned their attention back to young patient.

"Right then. Chucky, can you walk?" Chucky shrugged, tried and fell to the floor.

"No." He gave a feeble laugh.

"OK then. David, grab a wheelchair."

David nodded and the pair of them managed to transport Chucky out through the ward and towards the lift. David motioned to Mr Woodscout to be told where they were going.

"Isolation ward." Mr Woodscout gave a grim reply.

...

"Live... with you?" Harrison seemed struggling to get his head around the concept. "Like, as in, be adopted?"

"Umm, yeah?" Nerris bit her lip, but Harrison gave a little smile.

"Do your parents like magic tricks?"

"Hmm, kind of? My dad liked LARPing, but I can always turn him onto street magic. Another magician in their trained element." Harrison smiled, really smiled, his green eyes all shiny, a complete transformation from the boy who had been throwing up this morning. Nerris smiled back and slipped her hand into his.

"OK, you're just gonna rest here for a bit, then we'll figure out what to do with you, OK?"

"Sure." Nerris and Harrison jumped, and their hands slipped away from each other's. David, another auburn haired nurse and a boy in a wheelchair. The nurses helped the boy into a bed, and David turned his attention to Harrison and Nerris, looking surprised.

"Harrison!" He said in a croaky voice. "Are you OK now? You had me worried!"

Harrison gave a small nod. "I'm OK now, better thanks." David nodded happily.

"You sort of..." He coughed. "Missed visiting, but you'll have next week, sure."

"Yep. I feel OK." Harrison looked OK, but turned to look at the boy in the next bed. All the colour drained from his face in an instant and he stared. The same thing was happening to the other boy.

"J, Jackson?!" Harrison exclaimed in a faint voice, lying back down again.

"Harrison!"

"What's going on?" Nerris asked. "How do you know each other?"

Harrison looked faint.

"He, he's my brother. Jackson."

...

Max had been uneasy all afternoon, what with this new nurse. He wasn't sure what he was so nervous about. This guy, Daniel, didn't really act like David or Gwen, no slacking off attitude, or genuine caring. No, just very distant, occasional checks on every patient. But he didn't really seem to care that Space Kid had a head ache, that Nurf returned to the ward and was greeted with harsh stares and arguments from Ered, or that Neil refused to eat or speak to anyone.

Eventually, Max heard the door swing open and Gwen entered, grinning.

"Hey kids, guess who- who the fuck is this?" Gwen gaped at Daniel, who turned around with a smile on his face.

"Ah, you must be Gwen!" He said brightly. "I've heard so much about you from-"

"I know who you are." Gwen scowled at him. All the kids stared as Gwen's arms crossed and she stared him down. "I was hanging around with your sister, Jen, today, Daniel." Daniel frowned.

"Clearly you don't remember me. I'll make it clearer to you then. High school. Aidan Grant had your sister pinned against the wall with his fat fist. I broke his nose. Coming back to you yet?"

It clearly was. Daniel paled.

"Oh shit." He gasped. "Gwendolyn Fezz, I better go."

"Damn right!" Gwen snarled. She pointed angrily at the door. "If you want revenge on me for what happened, then take it up with me on the street, not in front of these kids!"

"Right you are!" Daniel gasped, hurrying out. Gwen gave a sigh of relief and leant against the wall.

"Erm, what the fuck was that?" Preston demanded. Gwen turned to them.

"Daniel and I have... history. All you need to know is that he doesn't have a medical degree and just wants revenge. He's not what you should call, stable."

"Oh, so he should be in hospital too!" Max called out and Gwen laughed.

"Yep, but if he knows what's good for him, he'll never show his face again. Sorry guys. Oh, Space Kid, what's the matter?"

"My head hurts!" Space Kid whined, shoving his face under the covers. "Again!"

"OK, guys, quiet down now." Gwen called, and the ward settled. "We'll let Space Kid sleep for a bit. Everyone OK? Harrison and Nerris not back yet?"

"Nope."

"Oh my... OK, I'm in charge now, so like, yeah..." Gwen took a deep breath. "OK, anyone got any problems at all, give us a shout, OK?"

The kids nodded and settled down a bit, letting Space Kid go to sleep under the covers. Max repeatedly tried to get Neil's attention, but Neil was ignoring him.

Eventually, the door opened again and Harrison came through, still looking a little shakey on his feet. Nerris followed, and then David, pushing a kid in a wheelchair, who looked tired and confused.

Neil shot up in his bed, ignoring the pain shooting through his body. "CHUCKY!" He gasped. Chucky gave a weak grin.

"Well, actually my name's Jackson, but yeah, hey Neil."

Neil grinned, his whole face lighting up.

"Have we got the spare bed Gwen?" David wheezed. Gwen shrugged.

"Why doesn't he go through to the next ward?"

"Oh, well, I felt like he needed to be with his friends." David gave a nod at the ecstatic Neil. "And, erm, his brother."

"WHAT!" Everyone exclaimed, and they turned immediately to Harrison, who was staring at his knees, his top hat on his lap, revealing his bald head.

"You, you mean?"

"Yep." Harrison muttered. "Jackson, erm, Chucky is my brother."

"OK, more details please!" Nikki demanded. Harrison sighed and looked over at Chucky, the pair of them had already spoken to each other and laid out their stories to one another. Harrison took a deep breath.

"Fine, let's start at the beginning, shall we?"

 **Attention readers, the next chapter will be a flashback chapter, the first part will be what Harrison and Chucky/Jackson tell the campers now, the rest will be 'Harrison's Story'. Thanks for taking the time to read :)**


	19. Harrison's Story

**Next episode. Dolph is a main character. (deep breath) YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!**

 **Sorry, I'm pretty excited :) He's my Camp Camp favourite, but never really gets a lot of attention**

 **Skater1ooo: I know I said that, sorry, I never actually planned to set them up in this story, I don't think, but the plot just does what it does as I go along, so long story short, they're not gonna be a couple, just have a very deep friendship :)**

 **TrueWhovian: Ghost? Please be a bit more specific, do you mean Chucky, or did you review on the wrong story? If not, thanks, I try and that was a really nice review. Well I write a lot of mystery, so consider yourself lucky :)**

 **NightshadeLG: OK, wow, thanks, the response I'm getting for this story is incredible, thank you :)**

 **Remember, this is Harrison talking, and Chucky cuts in sometimes.**

 _"So, it all started one night when we were meant to be having a barbecue for my dad's birthday or something like that, this was like, six months ago. Anyway, me and Jackson had this MASSIVE argument about something, I can't remember what. And he was sent to buy marshmallows at the shop two streets away while I was still fuming. My parents tried to calm me down, but I wouldn't. I told them that I wished Jackson would disappear forever and... he never came back."_

 _The ward listened in shocked silence as Harrison continued._

 _"There had been a horiffic traffic accident at the other end of town that say, half a kilometre from the shop, but we were too panicked to take notice of that. My parents, sort of thought it was my magic that made Jackson disappear and we've had a bad relationship."_

 _"Well, that accident was me." Chucky took over. "I was on my way to the shop when a van pulled up next to me and pulled me inside. I was so panicked as we were driving out of town that I managed to break free of the guy holding me and jumped onto the driver's face and managed to distract him. He crashed into, like, seven other cars and the next thing I knew... I woke up here with no memories. only a name ringing in my mind, Chucky. I now remember that was the driver's name, the guy I, erm, killed. But after I woke up from my coma, and saw Harrison's face, it all came flooding back, my name, my parents, my brother..."_

Jackson looked to Harrison. "I can't believe you thought you made me disappear!"

"You never came back. What was I supposed to think?"

"So wait." Neil sat up slightly. "You had no memories, so what was the stuff you told me when you were a patient?"

"Lies." Jackson admitted. I, erm, made stuff up, I'm sorry Neil-"

"Oh no, it's fine, I'm cool with that." Neil didn't look cool with it, but faked smile. Only Max seemed to notice this, however. But what could he do. Neil seemed bent on not speaking to Max or Nikki at all.

 **And now, on to Harrison's story.**

 **Again, if I offend anyone, please let me know as soon as possible.**

 **This is the story of how Harrison became a patient at Campbell Hospital.**

Harrison had a headache, but it wasn't a normal headache. It made him feel sick and dizzy and light headed. But still, he had to suffer through school because his parents were too 'scared' to let him stay home and lie down.

Harrison had made it through first period (geography) and was now in Maths. He was generally good at the subject, so reckoned he could take a lesson off with his head on the desk.

In confusion, Harrison watched his hands tremble out of his control on the desk. Urgh, even a little magic wouldn't make them still. Though Harrison was too tired to use his magic too a useful extent.

"Harrison!" He heard his maths partner whisper. "Sit up or you'll get detention."

"I don't care."

"Harrison."

"I'm ill, Scotty!"

Scotty rolled his eyes and went back to his equations. Even though no one was talking, the room was filled with the sound of scratching pencils, each one magnified in Harrison's ears. He clutched his head, but this didn't help. That was it. Harrison shoved his hand into the air.

"Sir, pleas can I go to the medical room, I feel really fucking awful." Harrison realised the swear had slipped out and gasped, but then remembered that this was Mr Reeds, and he usually dropped swears into the conversation himself.

"OK, you don't look so good, I'll give you my pass." Harrison stood up, big mistake. The dizziness immediately got worse and he stumbled forwards, and felt his head spin.

"Shit, I..." Harrison trailed off before collapsing to the ground in a dead faint.

He woke up at the hospital. At first, he was confused as to why he was here, after passing out, Harrison felt a lot better.

But he was told the doctors were going to run some tests.

And they did.

And they brought back the results looking rather sombre.

Harrison's mouth dropped open.

Cancer.

He had cancer.

And nothing in his life would ever be the same again.

From that moment on, Harrison was the victim of stares at school, excessive and painful vomiting and of course, his parents didn't understand.

Not even the fact that he was allowed to wear his top hat to school cheered him up.

One night, after he'd been throwing up excessively into a bucket by his bed and feeling wretched, his dad came in. Harrison was surprised, his dad never really acted kind or tender towards him. His dad sat on his bed next to him for a bit, just in silence, an awkwardness between them.

"What?" Harrison asked grumpily. "Or do you just enjoy watching me sick my guts up?"

"No, it's not..." His dad frowned. "I, err, don't like seeing you like this."

"Then leave."

"Harrison, are you sure you can't use magic to make yourself better."

Harrison was already in a foul mood, and his fists clenched.

"Yes, of course I can, I can just snap my fingers and the whole nightmare just GOES AWAY, oh wow, what a magician I am! No dad, no I CANNOT make cancer go away with magic because, wouldn't I have done that already? You stupid idiot, don't you THINK?!"

"Harrison..." But Harrison had had enough.

"Fuck off and leave me alone or I'll make you disappear like I did Jackson!" He snapped sarcastically. His dad practically ran out of the door.

Harrison lay back, regretting nothing. He felt sicker than he'd ever done in his life, even worse than he had the day he had been diagnosed. And it got worse as the night progressed. Eventually, Harrison was drenched in sweat and felt all sticky and ill. It was bad, he knew it. He needed to go to the hospital.

The only problem was... it was the middle of the night and Harrison hadn't got the strength to move. Oh no... he was screwed, if only... wait.

Harrison managed to roll off his bed, upsetting his sick bucket and wrinkling his nose at the smell. He shuffled across the floor towards his top hat.

"Phone, please." Harrison begged his powers, and luckily, he managed to grasp the house's landline and pulled it out. Harrison felt more nausea, but held it in.

He dialled 999.

...

A few days later, Harrison was recovered, but remained in hospital. His parents had barely reacted when their son had been driven off in an ambulance in the middle of the night, his mum hadn't even woken up.

Harrison really didn't want to go home. So he had a long talk with David about staying in the hospital kid's ward for the duration of his illness. There were many interesting kids there, a girl in a full body cast, a boy who was upset because his friend, Chuck?, had been taken away the day before, probably dead.

But this ward had better healthcare and people to take care of you than his home did.


	20. Spare Bed

**Sorry for the wait guys. But season three is almost over?! Even though the new episode looks awesome and really angsty, the wait will be LOOONG!**

Max was bored. Nikki had left the ward to get her other cast removed. She was leaving later in the day. Harrison and Chucky's parents were meant to be arriving to see their other son after so long. And Neil was busy catching up with said child and still hadn't spoken to Max. What was this feeling Max had when he looked at the pair? Was it, no, _jealousy?!_

That was why Max didn't protest when David 'summoned' him into the office.

"Wassup?" He said as he came in. David gestured to a chair, sat on the edge of Gwen's bed himself.

"Well, Max," David seemed a little unsure of himself.

"Someone hasn't died, have they?"

"No, no, well, at least I hope not." David gave a soft smile that was instantly replaced by a serious expression. "Max, we've been through two parents days in the time you've been here, and your parents haven't come. I just wondered if everything is OK at home-"

"YES!" Max said instantly. "I mean, yeah, it's all cool, my parent just work a lot, that's all. We're kind of poor."

"Oh that's perfectly understandable." David said quickly. "I mean, have you seen this dump?" He gestured at the cramped office/living space. "But who takes care of you?"

"They work from home." Max felt the lies slipping from his tongue like vomit, tasting bad in his mouth, but there, out in the open for all to see. "They're kind of, should I say, fat."

"Oh." David blushed a little. "Well, as long as you're OK. But wouldn't you like some of your stuff from home, you must get awfully tired of those PJs!"

Max physically winced at the word 'PJs'.

"If you want, I could always-"

"No no no, it's fine." Max gave a quick, false smile. "I'll survive. It's only, another week or so, right?"

"Week and a half."

"Nice." Max nodded, smiling. He heard a babble of excited laughter from the ward.

"Nikki's back then." David said. "She'll be leaving soon, when her mother arrives. You best go say goodbye."

"From what I've heard, she'll be back."

David chuckled. "I don't doubt that. But nevertheless, best to pretend as if she won't."

Max sighed and sloped out of the office to see Nikki, dressed in normal clothing; a pair of red dungarees an a T-shirt that said _WILD CHILD!_

"Hey, you off home?" He asked, knowing the answer.

"Sure! My mum's arriving soon. And back to normality we go!" She laughed a little. "I'll miss this place though. This stay's been fun, biscuits, Nerris's castle, ooh, seeing Chucky!"

"Diabetes." Nurf muttered from the top of his magazine.

"Stitches." Commented Dolph, his pencil not stopping for a moment.

"Awkward family reunions!" Harrison sighed.

"Oh come on, you negative little bastards! Life's great!"

Max laughed. Without Nikki, the prospect of a week and a half more in this place seemed daunting and dull.

"Just don't go flinging yourself out of trees to get here!" He said with a grin.

"I'll say!" Came an unfamiliar voice. Max looked up to see Nikki's mother stood in the doorway, Gwen just behind.

"Hey mum!" Nikki said excitedly.

"Ready to head off, sweetheart?"

"Almost."

Nikki leapt up onto her bed.

"Remember me, fine patients of this lousy, run down institution, remember me as a girl who tried to save you, but failed miraculously and now I'm abandoning you for a better life! Take your pills and recover well! Ered, stay cool, Neil, keep sciencing, Max..." Nikki paused. Then, "Stop it. Get some help." She quoted and everyone laughed. Gwen darted forwards and seized the girl, lifting her to the floor again.

"You're not out of the building yet and I'm not having ANOTHER insurance accident!" She said. "Harrison, Jackson, your folks are downstairs."

Nikki gave them all one last wave, then she was gone. Max gave a sigh, climbing back into his bed. Would she really be back?

...

The day wore on and Harrison and Chucky returned. Max hadn't quite realised what Nikki leaving had meant for him, but apparently, Chucky no longer had the spare bed.

"Um, hey." The other boy said as he arrived in the bed next to Max. Max felt Neil's eyes burn into the back of his skull and winced.

"Hey." He said back. "Err, me and you can switch beds, if you want. If you wanna, be next to Neil."

"Is that OK?"

"Sure man. Wouldn't want to keep you two apart now!" Max put on his best false smile. Shit, this say was quickly turning into a nightmare!

"What does that mean?" Max heard the familiar tone of Neil in the bed next to him, heavy with sarcasm. He dropped the smile.

"Oh NOW you're talking to me?" Max rounded on Neil. "I thought you were mad at me for forgetting a minor detail in my life and 'not telling you'."

"MINOR DETAIL?!" Neil spluttered. "You freaking saw-"

"And so what if I don't want to talk about that!" Max snapped, his voice rising, losing his cool remarkably quickly. "What if that brings up bad memories for me, huh? Didn't think of that did you, too busy acting like a baby!"

"Guys, can't we just-" Chucky and David began in unison.

"NO!"

"I'm a baby now?" Neil exclaimed. "Oh REAL mature, Maxwell, REAL MATURE!"

"IT'S MAX!" Max yelled. The whole ward was listening in, silence apart from the two boy's argument.

"How am I not the sensible one in all this?!" Max stood up, going right over to Neil's face. "It's you who was so dependant on that clowning cripple-"

"MAX!" David exclaimed.

"OK boys-" Gwen began.

"That you abandon all we had as friends the moment he waltzes in!"

"HOW DARE YOU-"

"Fuck this!" Max turned on his heel, going over to the door. "I don't need you Neil, I don't need any of you assholes!"

"Max, wait!" David cried, but Max was too caught up in anger to listen. He turned on his heel and threw open the door.

"ESPECIALLY NOT YOU, DAVID!" He yelled, and slammed the door behind him, running down the corridor. He thought about taking the lift, but never use the lift when there's a fire, an actual fire, or a fire of rage inside you. Max ran for the stairs and ran down, uncaring of where he ended up. The door to the ward opened behind him, but Max was running full tilt down the flight of stairs, shoving past any nurse, doctor, patient or visitor who dared get in his way. He was so angry, but also, so upset and he could feel tears... no, not gonna cry NOT GONNA CRY!

Max ended up right at the bottom of the hospital, the loading bay where they'd got the cardboard, a door through to the ambulance bay. Max didn't want to go into that part, there may be people there, but just one look at the ambulances would probably set him off.

 _"Max, call an ambulance, NOW!"_

 _The wails of the sirens in the distance, no no no!_

Max hugged his knees and curled up by some old crates, trying to hide, trying to stay unseen trying to...

Trying to disappear.

 **Don't worry, Nikki will be back.**


	21. Play Space

**Still, I am getting amazing response on this AU. Nearing 10,000 views! Probably not that great, but it's great for me!**

 **NightshadeLG: Do you? OK then. I hope you enjoy this as much :)**

 **Guest: Thanks, that's high praise. The update arrives!**

Max had no idea how long he was hiding down there. Maybe it was a few hours, maybe even days. Probably not days, but a long time He knew he'd missed dinner by the growling in his stomach, but didn't want to go back up to the ward. He had heard an announcement over the speaker, telling him to report to the doctor's office on floor three. Max ignored it. There was another announcement half an hour later, telling everyone to be on the lookout for a young, Indian boy wearing hospital pyjamas. Max sighed. No one would find him here. Either he stayed until he rotted, or come back to the ward on his own.

After many hours had passed and the entire building had gone to sleep, Max found the growling in his stomach become unbearable. He stood up and stretched, shaking out a cramp in his foot.

The loading bay was deserted, as usual. There was action in the ambulance bay, but that was understandable. Max slipped past and up the stairs again, slipping through the silent corridors like a miserable shadow. He reached the second floor, but then realised that he didn't have to go back to the ward. He had the whole place to himself. He could sneak into the kitchen and get food, and spend the rest of his days here in the loading bay. He could just stay there all week. He could stay there forever. Run away from his problems.

Max turned away from the stairs and headed on, into the second floor. He came to a door, simply marked, A. He shrugged and reached for the handle.

"Max?"

Max jumped and spun around to see Space Kid stood behind him, still clothed in his rocket pyjamas, toy rocket in his hand and a confused expression on his face.

"Space Kid?! W, what are you doing here?"

"No one lets me play space in the ward." Space Kid replied, smiling again. "So I have to do it at night, away from all the other people. It's strange really. No one ever likes me playing space."

"Was playing space what got you landed in here?" Max gestured to the bandage around the boy's head. Space kid shrugged.

"You wanna play? In fact, where have you been. Everyone's been freaking out. It too ages for them to go to sleep so I could sneak out. But do you wanna play?"

"Sure, sure. I'll play." Max said in a bored tone. If it kept Space Kid from telling, it was worth it.

Space Kid didn't seem like one to tell on Max though. They went all over the hospital, from wards full of old people, to sliding down the banister of a massive staircase, to the ambulance bay (the workers in which seemed to know Space Kid, and one even gave him some candy) to the very top of the building.

This seemed to be Space Kid's favourite place. It was very open, out with the night air, the night sky seeming impossibly close. Max leant against the railing that encircled the roof and gazed out across his city. He could see the lights of street lamps and see people walking about, coming home from restaurants or going to late party sessions at nightclubs. Police sirens wailed. Birds roosted on telephone wires. Max took a deep breath of the most likely polluted air and smiled.

It smelt like home. Home to him, and many other people, probably most of the patients on the ward. He could see a park in the distance. Nikki had mentioned living near a park. Max pictured her there now, sat on the roof of her apartment building, howling at the moon, maybe. Happy.

This roof was very far from the ground. It was hurt very much if he just...

Just one step...

No. No way. Especially not with Space Kid watching.

The other boy came up to Max, having finished running around the rooftop with his rocket.

"Why did you run away?" He asked, leaning on the rail next to Max, looking out. But instead of gazing down to the pavement below, he was looking up, up at the sky, the place where he longed to be someday.

"Erm, I was just... angry at Neil." Max said, but that barely brushed upon what he truly felt. Who he was truly angry at.

"OK." Space Kid whooshed his rocket along the railing a bit. "Will you be coming back?"

This question hit Max. The answer... he didn't really know himself. He shrugged.

"What if I don't?"

"I think Neil will stay upset."

"Upset?"

"Oh yeah." Space Kid nodded. "He hasn't spoken a word since you left, just lies there. And David's freaking out too. Gwen seems to be a little nervous about it all."

Max grinned at the thought of David freaking out.

"So, what if I do go back?"

Space Kid thought for a minute.

"You and Neil will probably have to apologise to each other and make friends again, like Ered and Nurf did."

Max shrugged. "I won't get punished?"

"David's too nice. And Gwen will be too relieved, I think." Max frowned. He hadn't really thought Space Kid took note of the world around him, but apparently, he took way more note than Max had ever thought. Maybe more than Max did himself. He had never really thought David cared that much. Maybe he had just refused to believe it.

"I think we should be getting back now." Space Kid said. "You know, if you want to."

Max shrugged.

"Sure. I think I can face the music."

Space Kid smiled and waved towards the sky.

"See you soon." He said, and headed towards the stairs. Max looked down into the street below.

"See you soon, you old cunt." He whispered, and headed after Space Kid.

...

David heard Gwen yawn and stretch, then get off her bunk to start the day. Must have just woken up. David hadn't. He hadn't slept at all. He had been so worried for Max. The boy had been really upset and angry, and he gathered it wasn't just because of Nikki leaving, nor Neil's attitude towards him. It was all his fault. He shouldn't have invited him to talk about his parents. Not he had probably escaped the building and was running loose in the city. Anything could happen to him down there!

"David? David, are you getting up today?" Gwen's head appeared next to his own. David jumped a little.

"Oh, yes, sorry." He sat up and hit his head on the ceiling. "Urgh, I do that every time, don't I?" He gave a feeble laugh.

Gwen sighed. "Max will be fine. The little shit's probably just hiding in the kitchen or something. He'll be back."

"I guess you're right." David said. "I hope you're right." He muttered.

"I'm always right." Gwen gave a smile and left the office. David carefully climbed down from his bunk, and heard Gwen gasp. "Max?!"

"Max?!" David exclaimed, and scrambled out of the office after her. "Max!"

Max was there, sat up in bed, eating a large bar of chocolate and grinning at them casually. "Oh hello David. Nice PJs."

David ignored the comment about his pine needle nightclothes. "Max, where have you been? We were all so worried-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get the idea. I've been a naughty boy, but I'm back now and as I remember, I have treatment in an hour or so, so chop chop, get dressed."

A laugh seemed to float from Space Kid's bed, but when David checked, the young boy was fast asleep. He sighed.

"You certainly are a strange one, kid." Gwen said with a nod of the head.

"Not as strange as David."

The other patients were gradually waking up and Neil rolled over to see Max in the next bed. He gave a start. "Max!"

"Yeah, finally people get my name right, no need to keep repeating it." Max finished his chocolate and tossed the wrapper into the bin in the nurse's office with the skill of someone who spent many detentions doing just that.

"Are you... alright?" Neil said awkwardly, sitting himself up.

"Yeah. Nothing awful happened to me on my adventures. Space Kid can probably testify to that."

"But..." Neil sighed. "I'm sorry about the stuff I said. I was still mad about you keeping that from me, but... you were right. I was pathetic about all this."

"Yeah, but, I was being a bit harsh on you." Max admitted. "I shouldn't have attacked you about it. So... I'm sorry."

The friends gave each other a small smile.

"Get a room!" Preston exclaimed from the next bed. Neil raised a fist, but it was in a joking way.

Space Kid sat up at the other side of the room, observing the friends laughing and joking, and including Chucky. He smiled.

"Houston, my work here is done." He declared.

"Huh?" Muttered a half asleep Dolph.

"It's another word for mission control."

"Oh, OK." Dolph dropped back to sleep. Space Kid observed Max and Neil for a little while longer, before reaching for his toy rocket. There were other space missions to play right now.

 **NOT a shipping chapter!**


	22. Space Kid's Story

**I'm gonna be referring to Space Kid as Neil for most of this, because he doesn't have the nickname yet.**

 **This is the story of how Space Kid became a patient at Campbell Hospital.**

"NEIL!" Neil Armstrong Jr jumped and looked up to see his teacher stood above him.

"Ah, hello there." He smiled up at her. His teacher slammed her finger onto his maths book.

"What is this?" She demanded. Neil looked at his doodles that were all over the little squares on the paper.

"Erm, a moon landing." He muttered. His teacher took the book away, ripped the doodles out and binned them before his very eyes.

"Focus!" She snapped and banged his book onto his desk. A couple of kids around him giggled, but were quickly silenced by a single glance from their teacher.

Neil sighed and chewed his pencil. He didn't really like this teacher, no, scrap that, he didn't like school in general. He preferred to be out there, training for when he could ditch this little suburban place and make his way into the galaxy. Where he belonged.

Day dreams go him through the rest of the day until the afternoon and the school bell rang. The kids filed out of the classroom and ran to grab their stuff. Neil was one of the fastest and ran to go find his older sister, coming out of the high school down the road with her boyfriend.

"Hey Veronica." He said with a wave. She sighed and turned to the guy whose arm she was hanging off.

"Little brothers, am I right?"

The guy shrugged. Even though it was summer, he was wrapped in a black trench coat. It made him look weird, like an alien! his sister was TOTALLY dating an alien.

"Neil, we're heading to the park, and mum and dad aren't home yet. You'll have to tag along."

"Sure!" Neil was excited. He loved the park, especially the overgrown parts of it. Reminded him of an alien planet. And there were a few dismantled old houses nearby, bricks scattered about the place. He could build a makeshift rocket!

"OK." He said brightly. The teens rolled their eyes as the young boy ran ahead, excited for the afternoon.

The park was, surprisingly, crammed with kids from Neil's class at school, and some slightly older as well. Veronica and her boyfriend went off somewhere, leaving Neil with the worst nightmare to deal with. Social interaction.

"Hey astronaut kid!" A guy, a lot taller than Neil, called him over. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hanging out." Neil replied, trying to sound cool. A couple of kids laughed and he laughed along with them, but didn't get the joke.

"Really? I would have thought you skulk around moon bases or some shit." The guy got a laugh out of this. Neil frowned. "What's the matter? Don't curse yet?" Neil shook his head.

"My mummy says that's rude."

"Really now? Well why don't you bug off back to her and leave us alone?" The guy stepped forward, his tone commanding, but not in a good way.

"I can't. My sister brought me here and- erm, do you guys mind backing off a bit, it's getting kind of tight over here-" Neil was now surrounded by kids twice his size and a lot older. He rubbed his elbow, feeling uncomfortable.

"Yes we mind!" The leader of the gang snapped. Then he grinned suddenly, an evil idea coming to mind.

"You want to go to the moon, right?" He asked with a sneer in his voice.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Then why wait, little buddy. You can set off right now." He advanced on Neil, took him by the shoulder and turned him to face the park's roundabout.

"Say what now?" Neil felt himself being propelled towards it by a hand in his back.

"It's simple physics." The guy said. "You get enough velocity, you can be propelled straight into the atmosphere! All we have to do is spin you round really, really fast!"

Neil looked at the shaky, unstable roundabout. "Erm, I'm not so sure about this guys. I don't think launch really works like that and-"

"Oh come ON!" The guy said, pushing him towards it. "You're not going to chicken out on us, are you, astronaut Armstrong?"

Something about these words turned Neil's space mode and bravery. His brow narrowed as he listened to the words of his comrades.

"Aren't you a real space kid?"

"Yeah, you can do it!"

"Break the record."

Neil grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, um, if you say so."

The kids laughed behind him.

"Come on man, we weren't serious!"

"Yeah, you'll never make it to space."

That was it. Those words. Those words that he hated to hear, but heard all the time, teachers, parents, siblings... Neil scowled.

"Yes I WILL! I'll show you! I'll show you all!" And with that, Neil marched towards the roundabout, determination in his eyes. A couple of kids tried to stop him, but most just scoffed and watched.

"Let him go. The idiot can get himself killed for all I care." The one who had started it all said.

Neil went to the roundabout and stood on it. He turned to a kid in his class who had been nicknamed Spark Kid, because he was always setting off illegal fireworks around town.

"Do you have a light?" He asked. The kids grinned in his own strange way.

"Sure thing, Space Kid." He laughed. Neil considered this name. He liked it. It would surely stick if he became the first kid in space.

Spark Kid attached a large firework to the base of the roundabout, and there were murmurings floating about the crowd, as if people had only just realised he was serious. His own sister even stood up from the bench she was sat on.

"Neil, what the fuck are you doing?!" She gasped.

"More than you ever thought possible!" Neil yelled back. He frowned determinedly. "Light it."

And before anyone could even register the stupidity of the scheme, the rocket was lit and the roundabout begun to spin.

Maybe Neil was crazy, stupid or impossibly desperate to prove himself. Because, as his sister had feared, the small boy was detached by the force of the rocket and went flying over into a pile of old bricks, smacking his skull onto the corner of the hard concrete.

"NEIL!" Veronica screamed and everyone in the area ran to see Neil on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Neil, stay with me please, ONE OF YOU TWERPS CALL AN AMBULANCE..." But he couldn't really hear them. Just faraway voices. Who were they? Who was the girl holding his hand? He didn't know. Who was he? He didn't know that either, couldn't remember. But one phrase, no, name, rang in his head over and over again.

Space Kid, Space Kid, Space Kid...

Huh. Maybe that was who he was.

When he woke up at the hospital, he could remember it all again. Everything but the afternoon at the park, how he even ended up there, and one other important piece of information.

His name. He couldn't remember it for the life of him. People tried to tell him his name, but it didn't feel right, not really. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe a new identity was what he needed.

So Neil chose to become Space Kid.

 **I understand the wait for this has been longer than usual, and that's because I have started school again (ugh) and accidentally joined two new fandoms. I also understand it kind of lacks in quality, but it's all I've got! Hope you enjoyed :)**


	23. The New Nikki

**I am SO SORRY for the amount of time I've kept you waiting! But I've been busy, my mum took my laptop off me for a bit, I joined two new fandoms (if you like Ducktales or Steven Universe, you can keep an eye out for new fanfictions on those that I'll bring out) plus I've started GCSEs at school now, and that is just TIRING! Anyhow, new chapter is here now, enjoy :)**

 **Guest: I agree, but that's what kids are like, and I wouldn't put it past Max to do something similar!**

 **NightshadeLG: Do you? Thanks :) Yeah, since I had an earlier Space Kid/Heathers reference, I felt I had to see it through. There probably won't be any more though.**

 **MythGirl Writes: Yeah, they are, I put way too many Heathers references into this! Thanks :)**

"So, you called her yet?" Max asked, leaning over towards Neil, who was tapping away at his phone.

"I texted, like, seven times!" He protested. It was a slow afternoon passing, Chucky was having treatment again, and without Nikki's chaotic attitude, things were starting to get boring.

"Well, may as well try." Preston said from the next bed over, which he had manovered to be closer to them. Max and Space Kid were sat on Max's bed, all gathered around Neil's phone.

Neil pressed the call button. The little green phone danced on the screen for a few seconds, then it vanished, to be replaced by a shot of Nikki's ear.

"Hello?"

"Nikki, this is a video call." Neil said as Max chuckled. The view shifted to Nikki's face.

"Hey guys!" She said with a bright smile. "How's it going?"

She seemed her usual cheerful and giddy self, but she had a huge black eye.

"Whoa, the fuck happened to you?" Max gasped.

"Oh this. I just... fell out of a tree. Again!" She laughed, but there was something in her eyes, a small twinge of uncertainty.

There was a small pause between the friends.

"Did you fall, or did you let go?" Preston joked, and they laughed, even Space Kid.

"Will you come visit us again?" Space Kid asked, and grabbed Neil's phone. "Cos it's getting boring here without you, no one to challenge the authority!"

"You could do that." Nikki said. Max laughed.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, totally!" Nikki nodded. "Space Kid can be the 'new Nikki'! That would be so cool!"

"I suppose we could give that a shot." Neil gave a shrug.

"Oh yes!" Preston exclaimed. "We can give him a total makeover, I'll teach him how she acts, this is gonna be great!"

Nikki rubbed her hands together and looked like she was about to start spouting off ideas, when a door opened behind her.

"Nicolette, hurry up!" A man's voice sounded, and a pair of tall legs came over. "What's this?"

"Just my friends from the ward."

"Hmm." The screen suddenly went black.

"OK, so that's over." Neil muttered. He pocketed his phone again. "Let's get on with this Nikki project!"

"Yeah! Space Kid cheered, and the three of them began to spout off ideas. Max sat a little out of it, thinking hard. The man who had come in, how Nikki's tone had changed when he spoke. Her black eye...

Max didn't know what was going on. But he had a suspicion that he didn't like.

...

"OK, so here's the script I prepared for you." Preston shoved the pages of handwritten noted into Space Kid's hands.

"Um, OK."

Max and Neil watched from their beds with grins plastered on their faces. They both knew that Space Kid would make a terrible Nikki, but it would be worth the watch to speed up their afternoon.

"And the stage is set, the audience is in place... let the show begin!" Preston said from his bed. The other patients were all sat up too, ready to watch Preston's show.

"Oh David!" Preston called. "You wouldn't BELIEVE the situation in here!"

"Preston? What's wrong-" David hurried in from the office and stopped. "Space Kid, what are you doing out of-"

"Look, uh, a distraction!" Space Kid cried, pointing to the left, then diving onto the floor, dropping his script, barrel rolling past a bewildered David, and yanking down his trousers.

All the kids burst into laughter at the sight of their nurse in his pine coloured boxers, and Space Kid jumped up triumphantly.

"Mission stage one, complete!" He said with a grin, and had to dart out of the way as Gwen lunged for him.

"Off script, nice!" Preston whispered. "Go for it! This is your grand finale of the first act!" Space Kid nodded and leapt onto his empty bed, sticking his tongue out before leaping towards Dolph.

"Watch it!" The German yelled, scrambling back, holding his stomach protectively.

"Sorry, Nikki out!" He continued onto Nerris's bed, then Harrison's, before diving onto the floor and rolling under Nurf's bed. "Ooh, monster energy drinks!"

"Get back here, you little shit!" Gwen snapped, hurrying after him as David zipped up his flyer and attempted to regain his dignity.

"I've got to admit, he does make a good troublemaker." Chucky remarked, and Neil nodded in agreement. Max had a smile on his face, but inside, he was sad. Space Kid was killing it.

It made him miss Nikki even more.

...

It took a good ten minutes for the two nurses to round up the excited and determined little boy and wrestle him back into the bed. Gwen and David exchanged a look and David grabbed a chair from the office and sat down in front of the gradually calming ward.

"Ooh, someone's in trouble!" Neil snickered, and eyed Space Kid, who looked rather pleased with himself.

David sighed.

"I can see where this is coming from, guys. I know Space Kid hasn't randomly developed behavioural problems." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I know we all miss Nikki, but this seems to happen every time, someone tries to fill the hole she left. But Nikki needs to stop coming back. Hospital is meant to be a small part of your lives, and then you're back on the road again. You guys shouldn't get too attached to this place, you have your lives to lead out there." David gestured to the big window at the other end of the ward. "And so does Nikki. So, for her sake, you should let her move on."

This speech was so deep and unexpected that no one had anything to say to it, there was nothing they could do but nod.

"What if it's not a minor part of your life though?" Preston said quietly. "What if you never come back out?"

This shocked everyone into confused silence.

Gwen sighed.

"We have been over this Preston, you were in a coma for three days, you're not going to die!"

"Still could." A smile snapped to his face. "Do you have ANY IDEA how tragic the end of that play would be!"

"No one would miss you." Max muttered, and Neil and Chucky laughed.

"How would you write that anyway?" Harrison asked. "You'd be dead."

"I'd get my sister to write it. Then we'd have more money." Preston lay back in his bed. "Oh I can see the mansion I'd live in as we speak..."

Before anyone could remind Preston that he'd be dead, David came over to Max and Neil and gave them a careful smile.

"I'm guessing it was you who put Space Kid up to that?" He asked.

"Not gonna lie, it was."

"Totally."

David chuckled.

"Nikki will still visit you guys, and if you want chaos in this wars, well..." He grinned. "It's Campbell Hospital. We don't have to try to get chaos here."

The boys laughed, and David with them. Max remembered the dude in Nikki's house, however, and her black eye.

"David," He began, but stopped.

"Yes Max?"

"Never, never mind." David gave a small nod.

"OK then. But if you need anything, I'll be in the office."

He gave them that trusting, fatherly smile that Max had never seen before. For a moment, if seemed like David was smiling directly at him.

"And only the finest bouquet of lilies at my funeral!" Preston declared.


	24. Dramatic Moonwalker Challenge

**Back on schedule, no more late updates, for now, at least! But important announcement, since I have my fanart Instagram up and running with images from my other Camp Camp fanfiction, do you guys want me to do some art that could potentially become new cover art for this story? Because, you know, the current cover sucks. Let me know in the reviews :)**

 **NightShadeLG: Yep, ever the over dramatic. Just you wait!**

 **Guest: I will do my best, but make no promises. This is a pretty harsh fic after all! Yeah, theatre boy would be the one!**

 **FoxGirl46: No, not dead, neither am I. Yeah, I ha to put that hidden reference in there and only fans of the musical will guess what Preston is maybe implying...**

 **ReadyWhenYouAre: Yeah, I was away too long, sorry I made you all wait! There will be more on her backstory in future chapters. Sadly no more Space Kid being Nikki, but it was fun while it lasted :)**

There were few times when the children in the ward were left completely unattended, but those times were treasured. David had taken Max down for treatment, which usually took more than half an hour because he still passed out sometimes, and Gwen had taken Neil to get his dressing changed. Neil's burns were getting a little better now, he didn't taken any more than forty five minutes, even on a bad day.

Nevertheless, eight out of ten patients were left alone in the ward and even without Nikki, chaos still ensured.

"Candidates for the moonwalking challenge, please step up!" Chucky called in a false presenter voice. Space Kid, Harrison, Nerris and Preston all lined up, giggling. Everyone else was laughing too. Chucky appointed everyone else as judges and they sat up to watch.

Nerris went first. She was quite a jerky dancer, but could strut her stuff. She got a combined score of twenty four.

Then it was Harrison. He was a very smooth mover, and even fitted in a few neat little turns and twists. Ered seemed to like it, and gave him a nine, and Nurf found it funny, so scored him a nine as well. Sadly, Dolph gave a five.

"My taste is my business!" He said a little stubbornly, folding his arms. So Harrison came out with twenty two.

"Oh yeah, second place!" He gave a jazzy spin and Nerris laughed.

"Not for long Harrison!" Space Kid called. "Everybody ready?"

"Yes!" The ward cheered. Space Kid seemed to think the moonwalker challenge was about literal moonwalking, so gave a floaty, clumpy walk all the way to the end of the ward. This seemed to confuse people, so Space Kid came out with fifteen.

"Could have been worse!" The aspiring astronaut said with a bold smile, clearly not stressed.

Now it was Preston's turn.

"Go Preston!" Chucky cheered as Preston took a deep breath. About a week ago, he hadn't even been able to stand properly, but he'd been practising and knew he had about two minutes before he had to rest again.

Preston launched into a perfect line of moonwalking, and threw in the occaisional turn and twist. The whole thing was very musical theatre, but worked incredibly well.

"That." Nurf said slowly once Preston took a bow. "Was AWESOME! TEN!" Preston's mouth fell open. A full score from Nurf? This was HIGH PRAISE! This was unheard of!"

"That was super cool. Like a whole new genre!" Ered grinned. "Totally awesome Preston! Ten!"

Preston looked like he was about to cry or cheer. Everyone stared at Dolph. Obviously the cynical judge, the small boy sat with a little frown on his face.

"Hmm, you stubled a little three quarters of the way through..." He muttered. "But the crowd demands it. Congvatulations Goodplay! Ten from me!"

The crowd (well, the former contestants) went wild. Harrison and Nerris attempted to Preston onto their shoulders, a futile attempt, as the three of them ended up giggling in a pile on the floor.

"Prizetime!" Ered called, and the three losers managed to parade Preston to the two older kids at the end of the ward. Dolph scrambled forwards onto Nerris's bed so he could see better without standing up.

"And for being the winner of this annual competition, " Nurf declared, and everyone laughed. "I gift you my last can of beer!" He passed Preston the can. Preston's grin faltered.

"Oh, um, thanks but..." He tried to pass the can back. "I'm good."

"Come on, it's just one can!" Nurf said. "Not gonna kill you."

"Rude to refuse." Dolph commented from the bed. Preston slowly examined the can in his hand. Red, the white logo standing out, just like, just like...

Preston didn't notice the panic attack sneak up on him until it was close enough to envolp him. He dropped the can and stumbled back, almost falling. Nerris hastily caught him by the arm.

"I, I'm sorry!" Preston gasped, struggling to breath. "I can't, not again, not after..." His breathing quickened.

"Whoa, calm down!" Nurf held out a hand to him. Nerris helped him sit on the floor until Preston could control his breathing patterns. He took a big gulp of air and sighed.

"You OK?" Nerris asked nervously. Preston nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, " He stood and stumbled a little. "I'm going back to bed." Preston managed to get himself over to his bed and sat down, breathing hard.

There was a long, awkward silence.

"Sorry." Nurf muttered after a while. Preston nodded.

"I, I'm OK." He said. "I just... haven't had very positive experiences with alcohol."

"We understand." Nerris told him as she and Harrison wrestled Space Kid back into his bed and picked up the hissing can from the floor. "No one here has very pleasant experiences with anything."

"Yeah yeah, knives, guns, rocks..." Preston gestured across at Nurf, Dolph and Space Kid. "But beer? Come on, how weak can I be?" He sighed dramatically and lay down.

"Well, everyone has their limits." Nurf said surprisingly gently. "How much did you drink?"

"Technically it was vodka." Preston muttered. "And you don't want to know."

"Learn your limits, my little friend." Nurf said dramatically. "Know how much you can take."

Preston smiled. "You're starting to sound like me."

"Don't push it!"

"What is that smell?" Everyone jumped to see David stood in the doorway, Max just behind him, grinning.

"Oh erm... Space Kid!" Ered accused hastily.

"Yes?" Space Kid called. David sighed.

"I know alcohol when I smell it. You guys are in BIG TROUBLE!"

The kids all bit their lips.

"Well shit." Space Kid sighed dramatically.

 **Sorry it's kind of short, I couldn't think of anything else to add to that at the moment.**


	25. Preston's Story

**Katieburg73x: I think that says you're only just into the fandom, but I'm glad you're enjoying it! That's such a nice comment to read :)**

 **Guest: He certainly would! :)**

 **NightshadeLG: I really like putting those little ooc moments in for Space Kid, just like that one, and yes indeed, shit! :)**

 **This is another backstory chapter, and this includes some major triggers such as depression, alcohol abuse and many, many musical theatre references. :)**

 **This is how Preston became a patient in Campbell Hospital.**

It was another challenging day for Preston, his grandmother needed picking up from her appointment immediately after school finished, which was a challenge enough getting her onto the right busses and making sure she didn't wander off somewhere. Then the moment he got home, a fresh wave of alcoholic smell hit his face, as did several chores that obviously needed to be done, such as basic hovering and making dinner before Angelica got home. His father was passed out on the sofa again, the TV blaring. Preston's grandmother placed herself on the armchair and patiently stared at the screen, even when Preston shut it off.

Preston busied himself with the cleaning and cooking, his mind totally focused on the new bootleg he had found on youtube that he planned to watch this evening. Preston didn't exactly like doing these chores, he'd much rather be focusing on writing play that would make his family rich. But someone needed to do it, and his grandmother barely knew what was happening half the time. His dad was a passed out drunk half the time and, the other half, he was just plain unbearable. And Angelica was working almost all the time to scrape an income to keep a roof over their heads. That just left Preston.

Just as Preston had finished wiping down the oven and was looking forward to singing along with Jared and Connor, the door burst open to reveal his sister, Angelica, laden with shopping bags and stress.

"Hey sis." Preston waved. "I made dinner."

"Thanks." Angelica dumped the shopping down. "Help me put this lot away will you and then get gram gram to eat. Don't leave her until she's eaten."

"But I-" Angelica glared.

"No buts. I would, but I am fucking exhausted." She rubbed her brow. "I had to work FIVE shifts today, FIVE! Oh, and after you've done that, can you wake dad up? He's got the night shift at the seven eleven again."

Preston felt like freezing his own brain at this point. "I've got a ton of homework to do-" He argued, but his sister turned on him.

"Preston Alexander Goodplay, do you honestly think your struggles compare to what I go through on a daily basis. After you've got him up and out, you can have your own dinner and do your effing homework."

"And you?"

"I'm taking a nap." Angelica grimaced. "See you at ten o clock."

Preston didn't comment on the fact that his sister knew he'd still be up at ten, struggling through essays that no one would help him with. His grades were slipping, his teachers constantly complained that he never brought his parents to the meetings that got set up and he was always up so late that he even fell asleep in class. Preston was constantly fuelled on coffee, giving him an over the top nervous energy that many people disliked. His grandmother's deafness and his father's reluctance to listen had lead to him shouting a lot of the time. He was constantly anxious over everything, grades, whether or not anyone even liked him, if his plays were good enough to earn any money... Preston's life wasn't going well and hadn't been for a good while.

With a sigh, Preston served up a plate for his grandmother and took it to her, making sure she ate enough, then made up a plate for his sister, and some food in a lunchbox for his dad to take with him, and scraped the leftovers together to make himself a plate. He put away the groceries. Now came the hard part. Waking up his dad.

Preston approached his father with caution and very gently poked his face. He didn't stir.

"Uh, dad? Dad? Dad you need to get up for your shift! DAD!" The man let out a grunt. Preston sighed, and gave him a gentle slap on the shoulder. His efforts earned him a twitch of the face. Preston checked his watch. His dad needed to be at work in ten minutes or he'd get the sack, which would put an unbearable amount of weight on Angelica's shoulders an would make him lie around the house all day, every day for months until Angelica could find him another job.

"DAD!" Preston yelled. His father grunted and rolled over, facing upwards. Preston sighed. He didn't want to do this, but he didn't have a lot of choice. Filling a glass of water from the kitchen, he dumped the contents on his father's face. The man sat up with a gasp, and lashed out, hitting the glass from Preston's hand so it smashed against the far wall. Preston squeaked in alarm.

His dad sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily. "Huh? Preston? What did you wake me up for?"

"Your shift dad." Preston said with a sigh. His father lay back.

"That's not until tomorrow."

"No, you've got the night shift today, remember? Angelica told you this morning." His father sighed angrily.

"Do you honestly think I can go in in this state?" He demanded. "I'll go tomorrow."

"If you don't show up, you'll get sacked!" Preston argued.

"Don't argue with me!" His father snapped, raising a fist threateningly. Preston cowered and his father laughed. "Now get out of here so I can sleep."

That was exactly what Angelica snapped when Preston went to get her for help. And in the morning when his father woke up, she'd blame him for not waking him up. Nevertheless, Preston went upstairs with his plate to do his homework. Scrap the bootleg, that would have to be done at a later date. Maybe in the holidays when he was less tired.

But sitting in front of his textbooks, Preston found that he just didn't care about the grades or school or any of it. Life was being a complete and utter bitch to him, maybe he should be a bitch back.

"Fuck you." Preston muttered, kicking his books aside. He laughed. It was Thursday night, one night from Friday. He might as well have a little fun.

Five minutes later, Preston held the biggest bottle of alcohol in the house in his hands, a large, undiluted vodka. Preston considered this. He might as well have a few shots. Passing out drunk would certainly make this nightmare of a day pass sooner. And maybe if he didn't show up at school tomorrow, they would kick him out. Preston was sick of doing the dirty work, even if there was no one else around to do it. They take him for granted? Let's see how they do without him.

Angrily, Preston unscrewed the cork and took a swing of the bitter tasting liquid.

Twenty minutes and two and a half bottles later, Preston was drunker than his father, lying spread-eagled on his back, singing the Lightning Thief soundtrack at the top of his lungs. Round about the campfire song mark, he was yelled at by his sister to shut up. He didn't, and kept taking little sips from the bottle, giggling at his own drunkenness. The night wore on and Preston had just broken the tree on a hill mark when he heard Angelica bang on the door.

"Shut the FUCK UP! I have to go in early tomorrow and I would appreciate some rest!"

"I would appreciate some PARTYING!" Preston yelled, laughing before launching into DOA.

"Preston? Are you drunk?"

"A little." Preston giggled, clinking his empty bottles together. Angelica banged on the door.

"Open up this INSTANT!" She sounded worried. Fun spoiler.

Just as Preston was about to get up and let her in, he began to feel dizzy, little black spots appearing across his vision.

"Uh, sis? I think I'm gonna go sleep."

"Preston NO! OPEN THE-" The door crashed open and the last thing Preston saw was his sister's shocked expression as he blacked out.

...

When Preston woke up, he wasn't in a familiar place. It was all white in there and the bed was large and comfy. He tried to rub his eyes but his limbs were too heavy and there was something sticking in his arm.

"Preston?" Preston turned his weary head towards his sister, who was sitting in a chair next to him. "Preston! You're OK!" She hugged him tightly.

"Huh, Ange? What happened, what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you to wake up, silly." Angelica seemed close to tears. "You've been in a coma for three days!"

"Three days!" Preston smiled a little. "He'd gotten some drunken fun and a three day pass from school! "Wait, aren't you meant to be at work?"

"I had to beg for a night shift." Angelica explained. "I wanted to be here to make sure you're OK. I'm gonna make it up to them with working full time for the same rate of pay next month."

"But who's gonna-"

"You'll have to, I'm afraid." Angelica sighed. "Just pitch in with the chores and looking after gram gram while I'm out."

Preston felt anger brew in his stomach. Of course, he nearly dies and the only thing on everyone's mind is how useful he is to the household.

Angelica stood up, putting her bag on.

"Where are you going?" Preston asked.

"Work." Angelica said. "I've gotta start going in now. Hurry up and get better, Preston, because we could really use your help."

A quick kiss on the head and she was gone. Preston lay back feeling weak and depressed. Of course the stunt he pulled wouldn't change shit. Well, he might as well take his time with recovery. He didn't feel like pitching in at home anymore.

The door opened again to reveal a tall, red haired man wearing a white coat and bright smile.

"Hello." He said with a little wave, sitting down next to Preston. "You must be Preston. I'm David, I'm gonna be your nurse while you're here."

"Oh, hi." Preston said a little gloomily. David gave him a sympathetic look.

"What's the matter? You're gonna be fine, Preston, out of here in a week if you recover fast."

Preston groaned. "This place has been nicer to me in five minutes than my dad and sister have been in five years and now I have to leave it back to being everyone's slave?" He sighed dramatically. "Maybe I should just literally break a leg and be done with it."

David frowned, and seemed to think for a bit. Then he put a hand on his shoulder.

"You know, if you take your time, and really take your time." David tapped his nose. "You could stretch it to two weeks, maybe three. And if you tell me more about your home troubles, perhaps I could help you out? I have links to family helplines and social services."

Preston choked and wiped his eye a little. "Why would you do that?"

"Because in kid's ward one in Campbell Hospital, everyone matters and no one deserves to feel the way you do." David smiled at him. Preston smiled back, overjoyed.

"Thank you!"


	26. Return

**Nope, still not dead. Just late, again. No excuses really, just lost my writing drive for a bit. Got it back now though :)**

David spent his usual afternoon strolling up and down the ward, occaisionally checking in on Gwen, who was slacking off in the office again. The kids seemed pretty healthy today, no one was upset or in pain, another good day for David. Sure he'd had to punish them for the alcohol incident, but they had taken it pretty lightly. Another day had passed with David helping to complete his personal mission, help these kids the way he'd never been helped as a kid, help this hospital help kids they had never been able to help when David had been young.

Looking across the ward, David saw the usual groups chatting and messing around. Everything was in order, except...

Max wasn't talking along with Neil and Chucky. He was sat in silence, leaning against the wall, staring towards the phone in Neil's hand. The phone from which they had last seem Nikki...

Oh Max.

David approached the unhappy little boy.

"Hey Max, erm, could you help me out in the office for a sec. I think Gwen's gone to sleep and I don't want to disturb her."

"Erm, sure." Max slid off the bed, looking a little confused. He gave a small soldier's salute to Neil and Chucky, then entered the office with David. "Whoa, this place is an absolute dump."

"I know." David gave a nod. "And I think it's high time I did a little organising around here. But I can't do it alone." He smiled at Max. "I can't think of anyone better to help."

"I can." Max looked back through the ward door. "Neil would work out a system. Preston likes things organised. Space Kid could always have fun doing it." He looked at the piles of clothes and CDs. "Why me?"

"I wouldn't be able to fit a bed in here!" David gestured to the tiny room. "And you should be getting out of here soon. About time we gave those arms of yours a bit of exercise, don't you think?"

"Erm, sure." Max picked up a T-shirt and dropped it again with a face. "Man, was that even yours? Or Gwen's?"

"I don't want to say." David's smile didn't falter for a second, but extended into a real one when he saw Max laugh a little.

"You're a cross dresser David!"

"Am not." David smiled. "Come on you. Give me a hand."

And to his surprise, Max did. The pair worked swiftly together, and managed to do it without waking Gwen, who was pretty much dead to the world. Max 'discovered' the biscuit tin and managed to stuff a good amount up his sleeves for the others, then stuff another handful in his mouth. He also found a small perfume bottle that was filled with gin. David took that off him, but not before he had a sip.

"Don't start drinking at your age." He said sternly, placing it on a shelf high above Max's head. Max rolled his eyes.

"So that's your bottle then?" David shook his head.

"No, Gwen's. She... get's very stressed."

"Sure." Max nodded sarcastically. "And Nurf slit his own knees."

David shot him a frown. "I take patient confidentiality very seriously." He said.

"Wait, he did? I was just joking-"

"No, no, of course he didn't." David gave a small smile. "But I don't think he'd appreciate that rumour going round."

"Look David, I don't spread rumours." Max picked up a photo of Gwen. "And even if I did, I know better than to pick a bone with Nurf." He looked up towards the shelf of photos, mainly belonging to David. "That kid in the photo, that's you right?"

"Oh yes." David gave a small laugh, blushing a little. He fetched down one of the photos, the camping one, and pointed to the ginger boy in the photo. "That's me when I was around your age. And that there is Doctor Campbell, current owner of the hospital." He was still smiling, but there was nerves behind his smile. He knew what Max was going to ask next.

"And who's the other kid."

"Oh him?" David smiled even wider. "That's, erm, my brother. Jasper. He loved camping."

"Right." Max nodded, and quickly carried on cleaning. He didn't comment on the fact that David had said 'loved' camping, instead of using the present tense. There were other things on his mind right now, like Nikki. He just couldn't get the thought of her black eye and how quickly the man had taken the phone, out of his head. He didn't want to admit it, but he knew what was going on. Looking at David now, he could tell that this was a responsible adult who could help but... what if attention just made things worse?

Max took a deep breath. "Hey David?" He asked in a small voice.

"Yes Max?"

Max sighed. There was no way his mouth would ever form those words.

"Where do you want these toiletries?"

"Oh, over there by the windowstill." David shot Max a look that Max knew all too well. David knew he was lying.

...

"Hey Preston, can we chat for a sec?" Preston looked up from his youtube bootleg. David stood above him, his face smiling, but also kind of nervous and stern.

"Uh, yes of course." Preston tucked his phone away under his blanket. David pulled up a chair.

"I know when you first arrived we talked about how long we could stretch your stay here. And I'm afraid, it's been more than two weeks now. Your sister calls regularly, she says she could really use your help at home. And we had a visit from your father too, he's been attempting to get a job here in order to see you more often."

Preston's eyes widened. "Really?" He gasped. That didn't sound like his dad. Had this experience... changed him a little? Would things be better?

"I understand you're reluctant to go back home, but this isn't a childcare home. I can't adopt you."

Preston gave a small nod. "I understand, David. It's been a while, a break from them is just what I needed, I think. And it is my responsibility, I suppose. I shouldn't have fled in their time of need. I am not to be the Charles Lee of history, after all."

"OK." David clearly had no idea what he was talking about. "Well, if you're sure you're ready."

Preston nodded. "Quite sure David."

David smiled. "Well then, now we can-"

The phone rang from the office. David looked up. The phone stopped and Max's hand stuck itself out of the office, holding the phone.

"It's for you David!"

"Right, uh, be right there." David have Preston an apologetic wave and headed to the phone. The ward fell quiet as David's face turned from casual politeness to downright horrified shock.

"He WHAT? Oh my gosh, that's terrible! Yes, or course. Oh, and that, I'm on it. Have a nice day." He hung up the phone in the office and emerged again, pale faced.

"What is it?" Harrison asked.

"Nikki's coming back." David said in a small voice.


	27. Solving problems with laughter

**Nope, still not dead. I just took an unannounced break over Christmas because I had to work on a collaboration story for another fandom and didn't have a lot of time. But anyhow, how were your holidays and stuff and hope you enjoyed them and hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

 **Guest: Sorry for the wait, it's here now. :)**

 **StarHeart Specials: Would it? Well, changing some character names and stuff, I suppose it could. Thanks :)**

 **NightShadeLG: Don't you worry, that's just the sort of stuff I write!**

The whole ward seemed a-buzz with the thought of Nikki's return, so much so that it seemed she had never returned to the ward before. It was pretty busy and tense anyway, as David had revealed that Chucky was being moved to the other children's ward where they had room to look after him properly, but his brother could still visit him easily. Some kids suspected that this was a cover story so that Nikki could have her bed back, but they could prove nothing.

Max knew that he was leaving in a few days, the day after the next visitor's day, but he was glad that Nikki would be there to see him go. She was really good company and a real laugh. He needed that sort of stuff, and by the looks of it, so did everyone else. They hadn't quite been as energetic since she left.

"Well, here go our quiet days." Gwen sighed. She turned towards the door. "Off to get that little horror. David, keep an eye on the rest of them."

David gave her a mock salute. "OK." His usual smile was plastered to his face like dry paint, but it seemed a little strained as he came over to her and murmured something into her ear. Gwen rolled her eyes and nodded.

"I know David. You've told me at least seven times." Gwen hurried off leaving the red headed nurse smiling at the ward of children who were impatiently waiting for their tenth and most excitable member.

"So what's wrong with Nikki now?" Neil asked David. The nurse stiffened.

"Oh erm, that's sort of her business. But kids, I don't want you to all go pestering Nikki for details. It's her story to tell."

The kids frowned at each other. This wasn't normal, Nikki was usually very forward about her injuries and David knew she wouldn't hesitate in giving them all the graphic details. Something wasn't right...

And when Nikki arrived back in the ward, it was very clear that something wasn't right at all.

Usually, Nikki would have been filled with her usual bounce and chatting excitedly away to anyone who would listen about her new injury. Even Max, who had never experienced Nikki's return before, had expected something similar. But Nikki came silently, staring at the floor as Gwen led her silently towards her old bed. Nikki managed to shoot a small smile at the rest of the ward, but that was all. There was a large bandage around her head and she seemed a little more shakey on her feet than usual.

"Hey Max." Nikki gave them a small wave. "Hey Neil. Hey guys, what's up?"

"The hell happened to you?" Max asked blatantly. Nikki blinked.

"Oh, you know, stuff. I erm, tripped and fell onto some broken glass, just like you did."

Oh that was just plain ironic.

Max looked towards Neil, who was frowning at Nikki curiously. "She's probably just a little drugged up on pain medication." Neil stated, but his gaze didn't shift.

"I can hear you, you know." Nikki muttered, lying down. The boys grimaced and quickly started talking about other things. The day moved slowly by and Nikki didn't move, occasionally scratching around her bandage. Max had never seen her so still, not even when she'd been sleeping. The whole concept of Nikki being miserable was just... off.

Eventually, Max felt himself grow hungry and his mind wandered to his first day here in the ward. He leaned over to Nikki.

"Hey, you hungry?"

Nikki glanced at her stomach. "A little."

"If you distract Gwen and David, I can go grab us some biscuits." Max knew Nikki loved causing chaos, surely she would jump at the chance!

Nikki shrugged. "Meh, I'm a bit... tired right now. Maybe later?"

Giving her a stiff nod, Max leaned back over to Neil.

"Maybe later? Neil, something is seriously wrong with Nikki!"

Neil shrugged, his clever eyes glancing around the other patients. Most of them had noticed that something was up with Nikki's behaviour, and were muttering amongst themselves. Max thought back to the strange phone call with the strange man and what David had said to them before Nikki had returned. Max hated to admit it, but he needed to have an 'emotional conversation'.

...

Nikki knew she would return to the ward someday, she always did, she actually preferred the place to her actual home, the bed was comfier and the kids were nicer. But she hadn't expected it to come this soon. It had only been a few days! She had planned to take a few weeks off at the minimum, maybe make some new friends to pass the time by, get back to school and learn some valuable skills of distraction for the next time they played code crumb. She had wanted to figure out what sort of guy her mum's new boyfriend was. Well, this task she had managed to accomplish, at least.

Her head still hurt after what had happened. Nikki wondered if her mum would pick her daughter or her boyfriend and if she would come to see her next visiting day. Despite everything, Nikki hoped so. She really wanted to see her mother right now, to have fun with her like they had when she'd been little and they'd had sleepovers on the living room floor with blankets and pillows. They had been like sisters then, but her mum had been a lot younger. That sort of thing never happened anymore.

"Hey Nikki?" Nikki was startled out of her thoughts by a familiar voice. Max was looking at her with her with that mysterious gaze of his, only it seemed a little less cold and forbidding this time. A little softer, more concerned.

"Yeah?" Nikki rolled over to face him. Max looked a little uncomfortable.

"Who was that guy we saw over the phone?" Max asked. Nikki stiffened. "Because, if he did something and you need to talk, I'm here."

The idea of talking to Max like a friend would comfort another friend was strange, yet strangely comforting. But Nikki shook her head.

"Nah Max, I'm fine."

"You haven't caused an ounce of chaos since you arrived, haven't laughed enough, you're not yourself Nikki! And I can understand, I, I know how... wrong adults can be to kids."

Nikki scoffed. "You fell in broken glass." She snapped. For a moment, Max longed to tell her, to let the whole uncomfortable story spill, to hear some words of comfort from Nikki or Neil or even David! But no, he kept his mouth shut.

"Yeah. But you didn't."

Nikki looked away from him. She could feel his gaze on her, burning into the back of her neck like a search beam. Similar gazes were also searching her for the truth, David and Gwen's, Neil's, some of the other kid's. Nikki didn't really appreciate that, but she appreciated that Max was trying to help.

"I'm fine." She said. "If I... if I have to tell you, I will but... not here. Not today."

Max nodded, understanding that there was nothing more he could do. Before he could say anything more, Space Kid had bounced over to them, pointing at Nikki's head.

"Hey, you've got a bandage like me, gimme five!"

...

As per usual, Max woke up in the middle of the night, his mind clouded with worry over the next visitor's day. He sat up and glanced around the ward. The light was off in the nurse's office, Space Kid's bed was empty and everyone else seemed asleep.

As Max was about to slide out of bed to go find some food, he heard a slight noise coming from Nikki's bed. He turned towards her and was startled to see her figure thrashing about in the bed. This wasn't really anything new, Nikki was a restless sleeper, but Max had never seen her this restless. She appeared to be having some kind of nightmare, because she was muttering in her sleep, and gave small pained yelps every now and then. Max stiffened, and went quickly to shake her awake.

"Nikki!" He hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. "Wake up, you're dreaming!"

Nikki's eyes snapped open and she violently shoved him off, sitting up. Max fell to the floor.

"Ouch, oh if you've reopened by stitches I am going to KILL you!"

"Maybe you shouldn't have woken me up then." Nikki said a little grumpily as Max got to his feet.

"You would have screamed and woken the whole fucking hospital up!" Max argued, sitting on his own bed. "Must have been some dream, that."

Nikki looked at the ground, ignoring Max's conversation prompt. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does, Nikki, what really happened to your head?"

"Why do you care?!" Nikki snapped, jerking away from him. "It's none of your business."

"Nikki-"

"You wanna fight me Max?" Nikki stood up on her bed. "Cos that's gonna be the case if you don't shut your mouth!"

"Quiet mum!" Neil moaned from his bed, snoring softly. The pair paused and chuckled a little as Neil mumbled things about iron sulphate.

"He even dreams nerdy!" Nikki laughed. She sat back down with a sigh, rubbing around her bandage. "It's itchy." She complained.

"The bandage?"

"No, the stitches." She pulled up her bandage to show him a long scar slashed across her forehead. It looked nasty.

"Do not scratch that." Max made a face. Nikki shifted the bandage back down again.

"I won't. I want it to heal, and then I'll have a wicked scar! I'll look like a pirate."

Max laughed, glad she was back to her old self.

"You don't have to tell me what happened." He said quietly. "But... does it have something to do with your mum's new boyfriend?"

Nikki sighed. "That was quite a guess."

"I'm quite a smart one."

She gave a small smile. "He's not new. He's an old one who just got out of jail for good behaviour. Don't know why. He's a jerk. He doesn't have a job, he just lies around a lot and stuff. Mum hates him too, but she never really broke up with him when he went to jail and now he's out he won't leave. He didn't... hit me when I was little, but..." Nikki trailed off. Max was listening with intent ears, eyes widening with horror. "Now he gets mad a lot more, especially since mum was seeing people when he was in the slammer and one night he got pissed off and hit me with a wine bottle. I don't remember much after that, only waking up here and David was there. It was nice, to see a kind face, you know, after so long."

"I know the feeling." Max nodded. "I got that too. After I got here, I realised what things were like here, and what sort of people run the joint."

Nikki nodded. "David's nice. If only my mum would date HIM!"

Max laughed. "I don't think nursing pays well. Look at the corner he lives in." He gestured towards the office. "Which he SHARES!"

"Plus he's probably gay. All the best guys probably are. That's what my mum told me."

The pair started laughing so hard they woke Preston.

"Quiet, imbeciles!" He snapped, rolling over in his bed. This only made them laugh harder, so hard that several other kids and Gwen woke up to see them rolling around in their beds, laughing like a pair of madmen.

"Erm, OK." Gwen blinked as most of the ward continued to stare at them.

"The laughing gas!" Nikki cried. "The aliens came, they've got us. Save yourselves!" Max was laughing so hard he fell out of bed.

"Oh no!" Space Kid stood up on his bed. "Keep calm everyone, I've been training for this my entire life!"

"Oh for the love of, everyone back to bed! Shut up you two!" Gwen commanded, but shot them a small smile. "Nice to have you back, Nikki."

As the ward settled down and everyone started to drift back to sleep, Max managed a small smile which . He'd managed to solve someone else's stupid, abusive trauma. Too bad he couldn't solve his own problems.

 **Depressing enough for you NightShade? Probably not, but this is not my most depressing story.**


	28. Nikki's Story

**Nightshade LG: I'm not trying to make this super depressing, but good advice for future, more depressing stories :) If you want my most depressing material, check out some of my oneshots**

 **Fan: Yep, that seems like the full synopsis for the actual show, and the way it's done in this story!**

 **CampCampFan: Why thank you :) I really like seeing nice comments like that on my stories, boosts the writing drive :) No, probably not, there's not much from Camp Camp aside from Nerrison that I actually ship that isn't total slash.**

 **Mikoriya: Whoa, thank you so much! You actually admire my work that much? Thank you! :D I'm sure you'll be a really good writer one day, if you're not already :)**

 **Rainboots: Even though it's been long, Max's story is being left to the last of all the kid's stories.**

 **Anyways, flashback chapter.**

 **This is how Nikki became a patient in Campbell Hospital.**

 _Long days always bored Nikki. By two in the afternoon she would be stretched out on her apartment floor, waiting for her mother to hurry up and come back from her stupid date. Days like this were only good for killing off your brain cells with meaningless TV shows._

 _It was already eight o'clock. Her mother had said she'd be back by seven thirty, tops. What a liar. Nikki's favourite show's ending credits came up and she turned the TV off with a huff. Maybe she could watch a film, no, she couldn't be bothered to sit still any longer. There were pillow forts that could be built, eggs that could be fried, roof's to be climbed on... no, her mother had told her sternly that she was not to cause any trouble, she didn't want Nikki to go back to that hospital again._

 _Ah, the hospital. Nikki seemed to spend more time there than at home. David was already a bit like a dad to her, Gwen, a sort of second mum/boring big sister/aunt. The other kids were annoying siblings or close friends, at the very least, like her cousins._

 _They were probably having more fun than she was._

 _The turquoise haired girl lay down, blowing air into her fringe, rolling over and over on her stomach. This was so boring! If only her mother could come back from her date already! She had promised pizza for Nikki tonight when she got back... wait. Were those footsteps on the stairs? Nikki looked up and listened. Sure, that was her mother's heels approaching the apartment door. Nikki perked up, but then realised that her mother was talking. To whom? Herself?_

 _No. There was only one obvious answer. Her mother wasn't alone. She had brought her date back to the apartment for 'dessert'._

 _Nikki jumped to her feet and turned to TV off. She wasn't staying in her bedroom all night again, having no dinner. Fuck that, she was going out for her pizza. Just before the door opened, Nikki dashed to her mother's room for the spare change box. There should be enough for a takeaway pizza in there, or at least some chips. Nikki grabbed the box and shook it. It seemed heavy. She grinned. This was definitely enough. She could probably afford an energy drink too! And perhaps even cookies!_

 _"Oh, and just wait until she you meet my daughter, she is just the cutest!" Her mother sounded slightly drunk. Nikki frowned. How come her mother only said these things about her when she was drunk or worse?_

 _"Nicolette?" Her mother called. "Where are you?"_

 _Nikki didn't respond. She clutched the change box firmly. If her mother came into the room and saw her daughter with the spare cash, she would say something totally different about her._

 _"Meh, she's probably asleep. Or playing with the kids next door." Nikki let out a sigh of relief. All she needed now was for her mother to entertain her 'guest' in the kitchen with some wine and then Nikki could slip out the front. Then for the pizza!_

 _"Whatever." A female voice came. "Which one's your room, Candy?"_

 _"Straight on." Nikki could hear the smile and anticipation in her mother's voice, and stiffened as she heard footsteps approaching her mother's bedroom door!_

 _Nikki looked around wildly, searching for any means of escape. The closet, no, no way was she staying in the room where the dessert was being served. That only left..._

 _The window._

 _Perfect!_

 _Nikki dashed over to the window and yanked it open. Good thing her mother and the other woman were probably both in heels and tipsy, they were taking their time._

 _The apartment was three floors up._

 _There was a tree five feet's jump away._

 _Holding the change box in a shakey hand, Nikki stood on the windowstill, bent slightly at the knee. She wouldn't be able to shut the window once she was on the tree branch, but her mother probably wouldn't bother to shut it._

 _The knob turned behind her. It was now or never._

 _Nikki jumped._

 _For a second or two she was just sailing through the air, then crash landed into a mess of sticks and leaves. She slipped, but held on firmly, scrambling up onto the branch._

 _Excellent! Now all she needed was to inch carefully along the branch with the change box under her arm and..._

 _The change box._

 _Where was it?_

 _Nikki looked around wildly. It wasn't anywhere on the tree branch. She must have dropped it when she crashed into the tree._

 _Shit._

 _As Nikki was looking wildly around below her, trying to spot the little box, a beam of light came from the apartment window, illuminating her._

 _"Nicolette!" Nikki groaned and turned around on the branch to see her mother's panicked face staring out the window at her. "What do you think you're doing out there?"_

 _"Hi mum!" Nikki waved, and slipped a little, hastily catching herself again. "I'm err, just practising my tightrope walking!"_

 _"Get back in here right this moment!" Her mother sounded pretty worried. "You'll fall and break your neck!"_

 _"No I won't!" Nikki said cheerily. "I just have to stand and..." Her mother gasped as Nikki got to her feet and gave a small jump across the length of the tree branch, and held her arms in the air in a gymnast position. "Ta da!"_

 _"That is one crazy kid!" The woman standing slightly behind her mother remarked. Nikki's mother clutched the windowstill tightly, face clouded with worry._

 _"Nikki, get down!" She gasped, but it was too late. Nikki's tall stretch had already made her unbalanced and with one last cocky smile back at her two person audience, Nikki suddenly slipped and fell to the ground._

 _"Nicolette? Nicolette, get up!"_

 _Nikki groaned a little and blinked her eyes open. Her mother's worried face swam into view. Nikki gave a little gasp at the pain, but found she couldn't breathe too well._

 _"M, mum?" Nikki murmured. Her mother ducked out of her line of sight and was replaced by the woman who had been brought to the apartment._

 _"Just breathe honey." The woman said. "I'm a doctor, well, in training. I've called an ambulance. You're gonna be fine."_

 _Nikki gave a little laugh, then winced at the pain._

 _"Nicolette, are you alright?" Her mother asked anxiously._

 _"Y, yeah, I think-" Nikki sighed. "Sorry I have to go back to the hospital, mum."_

 _"Don't be sorry." Her mother stroked her hair. "Just try get better. I swear I will have to chain you to the wall someday."_

 _Nikki didn't laugh, it hurt too much._

 _But at least she knew she would be laughing again soon._


	29. Unexpectedly Cool

**I really don't have an excuse for chapter delay any more.**

 **ToonyMoon: Thanks, this review was what really motivated me to write this chapter, so well done, you were a massive help :) Feel free to review again :)**

"Visitor's day!" Nikki shouted at the top of her lungs. Everyone in the ward, nurse's office, and quite possibly the whole hospital, jerked awake with a start.

"Nikki, what the..." Neil sighed, flopping back on his pillows. "Oww! Burn scars!"

"What time is it?" Harrison moaned, rubbing his eyes.

"Zero, zero o'clock and thirty eight seconds!" Nikki said with a grin.

"Does she do this every visiting day and we just sleep through it?" Gwen said sleepily to David.

"No, I'm waking you up because this is a special occaision." Nikki said with a smile. "This is the last visitor's day before we lose several of our number to the man!" She said dramatically.

"Did I wonder into some kind of apocalyptic future?" Nerris asked no one in particular.

"She means that, tomorrow, some of our patients are going home back to their hospital free lives." David announced with a slight sigh on his voice.

"Yeah." Nikki nodded. "I thought, since everyone's going to be tired and depressed tomorrow night because of their parents coming in, we could celebrate their time here, now."

"Can't we wait until morning?" Nurf snapped, shoving a pillow onto his face.

"Not if we're going to get in a ful scale party before our parents show up!" Nikki stood up on her bed, making the nurse's cringe as she wobbled a little. "Now, Gwen and David, you guys can go get food from the kitchen, Ered, use your rad taste in music to find tunes we can enjoy, and we can all help with decorations!"

"Decorations!" Preston and Dolph exclaimed, both sitting up a little straighter.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Gwen held up her hands. "It's the middle of the night, let's just all calm down and..." She yawned. "Talk about this in the morning. Right David?"

All of the kids who were longing for a party turned their faces expectantly towards the other nurse, who rested his chin on his hand in thought.

"Hmm, I suppose Nikki has a point." He muttered. Then grinned. "OK kids, as long as we keep down the noise so we don't disturb any other patients, I think a small party would be alright to celebrate the time of Nerris, Preston and Max."

The kids all grinned, except for Neil, who quickly looked towards Max's bed, where his friend was still asleep, oblivious to all of the noise.

"Max is leaving?" He muttered. "Somehow I did not see that coming."

...

With a yawn, Max sat up and was surprised to see his friends looking at him expectantly.

"I miss something?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"It's visitor's day." Nikki announced.

"Why wake me? My folks never show up." Max flopped back down onto his pillows. "What's going on?"

"David didn't tell you?" Neil asked with a raised eyebrow. "Today's your last treatment."

It took Max a second or two to work out what Neil meant. Then he realised.

"You're going home tomorrow morning." Neil continued. "Along with Nerris and Preston."

Max smiled from ear to ear, a split second of actual glee in his face before it quickly snapped back to his usual frown.

"Finally!" He said, much to Nikki and Neil's dismay. "I get out of this place!"

"Do you have a cell?" Neil asked. "You know, like this?" He help up his mobile.

"Oh a phone. Nah, too much money and they never work anyway. If I need one, I'll find one."

"Then how are we gonna communicate?" Nikki asked.

"What?"

"You'll come visit, right? When you're no longer a patient?"

Max suddenly realised what she was talking about, why his friends were so dismayed. Why they wanted him to have a phone, and seemed so worried. They actually liked him! He actually had friends who hung out with him, not just for personal gain, but because they wanted to be around him!

Too bad he'd probably never see them again.

"Erm, nah, I don't think I can." Max said awkwardly. "You see, I don't exactly live in the area and... we were temporary friends at best." Max had attempted to let his friends down easy.

The attempt hadn't worked.

"Temporary friends!" Neil spluttered. "Did I just hear you correctly?"

"Yeah, I think you did." Nikki narrowed her eyes. "I think Max just called us his 'temporary friends'." She scowled. "If David weren't standing right there, you'd be in this hospital for a little while longer." She growled.

"Damn, calm down Nikki!" Max held up a hand. "I'm just stating the obvious! It's not like you'd expect three weeks in a hospital wing is going to make us lifelong friends or anything!"

"Yes, Max, that's exactly what we expected!" Neil snapped. "Maybe not lifelong, but at least a few months." He scowled. "You know what Nikki, I might just call my dad to come in today. And text my mum apologising. Now that I've finally found someone more shallow than my mum!" Neil rolled over wincing slightly at his burns. Max looked at Nikki, but the girl already had her arms folded and back turned. Max groaned and shoved a pillow over his face. He wasn't crying, he told himself, he was just mad.

Yeah, he had to be mad to let friends like those slip away.

...

Visitor's day was in full swing. Nikki's mother had shown up, as had Neil's father, and neither children were in a talkative mood. So natural, they flirted, leaving their kids so sit in silence and sulk. Aside from Harrison's mother bringing him some showglitter and Nerris and Preston's folk's not showing because thy would see their children tomorrow, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary.

Well, until Edward Pikeman showed up.

The patient from next door was obviously a patient no more, as he wore plain jeans and a jacket and only had a very slight limp from his previously broken leg. Nikki ignored her mother's vivid description of last night's ordeal with her newest boyfriend and frowned slightly down the ward at the red head. She remembered rushing through to steal the loading bay keys, and rushing again to get David after Dolph fell off the castle. But what was he doing here? She looked over at Neil, who was frowning in a similar fashion at the intruder (Max was hanging around with Nurf at the other side of the ward). Their eyes met and they both sat up a little straighter to observe.

Pikeman kept on going until he had reached the end of the ward, and then went over to one of the beds. Ered's. He began to talk to her (her fathers had gone to get coffee from the vending machine), and by the looks of it, Ered didn't really want to be talking to him.

"And anyway, by the time he was through with that-"

"Mum!" Nikki help a hand. "One second." She slid off the bed and climbed onto Max's to talk to Neil.

"What's that guy doing here?" She murmured to him. Neil shrugged.

"I don't know, but I don't think anyone's particularly happy to see him."

"Should I go over there and rough him out?" Nikki grinned, rolling up her sleeves.

"Allow me to accompany you." Neil said with a grin. "You see, I've read all about chivalry and how it really gets the ladies, you know." He grinned to Nikki's frown. "Getting rid of their enemies?"

"If their enemy is a math problem maybe." Nikki snorted. "You can't even stand up."

"Actually, I've been practising when I go to get my bandages changed." Neil shifted himself upwards a little. "That's why my burns have been hurting so much lately. But I could manage it down to the window and sit on the seat there."

"Sure." Nikki smiled. "I've been waiting to see you walk for months now."

"So have I, but third degree burns don't heal fast." Neil winced and slid his legs out of the bed, wearing the dark green pyjama bottoms that went with his pyjama shirt, except nobody in the ward had ever seen them. With a deep breath and wide eyes from Neil's father (who no one was really paying attention to), Neil stood on his own two legs, stumbling forwards a little, but catching himself on Preston's bed. The other boy just gave him a small smile and helped him stand properly.

"You OK?" He asked quietly Neil nodded and Preston smiled at him. It was always a feat to see a bedridden patient walk.

Nikki and Neil headed over to Ered's bed just in time to hear Pikeman say "And of course I just had to snitch on her, who smokes meth cocaine on a schoolnight!"

Ered looked ready to kill somebody, and she would probably have gone for Pikeman if she could move her arms.

"Hey Ered!" Nikki said brightly, folding her arms in order to look menacing while Neil collapsed onto the seat near Ered's bed, wincing in pain. "What's Pikeman doing here?" She frowned at the redhead.

"Oh, I was just catching up with my friend here." Pikeman gave a smug smile to Nikki. "We know each other from school."

"Looked more like you were trying to euthanize her with boredom." Neil muttered. Nobody understood the joke, so nobody laughed.

"What you were doing was trying to get your kicks in by insulting my friends." Ered scowled. "While I'm not around to look after the situation at school. Is that how you broke your leg? Because you kept mouthing on at people as always?"

"Ohhh!" Nikki gave a small laugh. Then remembered what she was here.

"Mr Pikeman." She said in her politest voice. "Would you consider leaving our friend, Miss Miller, alone and, how do I put this politely-"

"Fuck off?" Neil offered with a smirk. Nikki nodded.

"Yes, as my friend here has so kindly put it, fuck off back to whatever hole in the ground you came from and eave Ered alone!"

Edward frowned, and drew himself up to his full height.

"Or what?" He asked with a slight snarl on his voice.

"Or we'll kick your ass!" Neil said. His newly gained ability to walk had somehow boosted his confidence to a ridiculous level and he seemed to be floating on a bubble of repressed maniac tendencies.

"Oh yeah?" Pikeman wasn't going to let himself be intimidated by a kid wrapped in bandages who could barely walk. He made a move to give Neil a shove that would have surely wrecked havoc on his still healing injuries. Nikki's eyes widened and she darted forwards, sinking her teeth into Pikeman's hand.

"Argh!" Pikeman leapt backwards, clutching his hand. "You bit me!" He inspected his hand. "I think it broke the skin! I'm going to have to get tetanus shots!" He winced. "You're a fucking animal!"

"Hey, don't talk about her like that!" Ered seemed genuinely angry by now. "Nikki's way more cool than you'll ever be!"

"Yeah." Neil gave a nod. "I'd rather hang out with her than a rat like you!" Nikki smiled and Neil grinned back at her.

Pikeman looked from Neil to Nikki, to Ered, and then back to Nikki. He sighed, turned on his heel and walked rather quickly down the ward and out of the door. The trio looked at each other, and then gave small cheers.

"Yeah, you showed him!" Nikki said happily to Neil.

"And you bit him!" Neil laughed. "That was so cool!"

"You two are so cool!" Ered grinned. "I wouldn't know how to get rid of that jerk if you two hadn't shown up. And there isn't a lot you can do for yourself when you're in a full body cast." She looked sadly down at her plastered limbs.

"Hey, you'll feel better soon." Nikki said with a smile. "I mean, look at Neil. Even he's recovering!"

"Synthetic skin." Neil said with a humourless smile.

"Yeah, and in or out of a bed, you're still the coolest person I know." Nikki said with an innocent smile. Neil and Ered choked up laughing, and after a moment's realisation, Nikki giggled and shoved her head into her hands, flushed red.

On the other side of the window, Max stopped listening to Nurf's description of his mother's various crimes and observed his friends. He missed them already.


	30. Ered's Story

**Hi, yes I know I haven't updated since... well, not for ages. But the explanation will still be up on my profile for that and I'm sorry for the long wait. But I'm about to go on holiday to New York and Canada, so I'm gonna try and bring out some new chapters then. Anyhow, yeah, apologies for the late update, but to make up for it, I am gonna bring out some new cover art for his story that I've been working on for a while, so yeah, that'll be up in a few weeks or so.**

 **Thanks for all your reviews, I would reply to them individually, but I'm writing this on my phone and it's a lot more difficult. Anyhow, thank you all so much for being engaged in this story after all this time and yeah, enjoy the chapter:)**

 **This is the story if you Ered ended up in Campbell Hospital.**

 _With parents as strict as her's were, it was no surprise that she liked to sneak off every now and then for her more dangerous stunts. After all, she had a reputation as one of the coolest kids in school, and she didn't intend to give it up easily._

 _One of Ered's favourite handouts was an old abandoned apartment building, the roof of which someone had converted into the best illegal skate park in town. It was here where the most dangerous stunts of the kids in town were attempted. Ered had never failed to demonstrate the best technique when it came to dangerous stunts that nobody else would attempt. Her reputation was constantly intact and, although it was suffocating at times, Ered liked the respect that came with it._

 _One of Ered's favourite handouts was an old abandoned apartment building, the roof of which someone had converted into the best illegal skate park in town. It was here where the most dangerous stunts of the kids in town were attempted. Ered had never failed to demonstrate the best technique when it came to dangerous stunts that nobody else would attempt. Her reputation was constantly intact and, although it was suffocating at times, Ered liked the respect that came with it._

 _"Sup Ered!" Ered heard one of her long term skating buddies call her over as soon as she stepped away from the cool shadow of the stairwell and onto the rooftop, which was already filled with local kids going up and down the rickety ramps._

 _"Sup." Ered went over to her buddy and gave him a high five._

 _"You missed some serious drama yesterday." He told her. Ered frowned slightly._

 _"What happened?"_

 _"Well, one of the guys challenged a newcomer to jump the gap between the two buildings," Ered winced thinking of the perilous gap between the skatepark roof and the next building along, not only was the gap at least twelve feet, their roof was lower down. You'd have to work out all the distances perfectly to manage it. Even attempting something that dangerous was borderline suicide, and everyone knew it._

 _"Don't tell me he did it!"_

 _Her buddy nodded, to Ered's amazement._

 _"And even more wild, he made it safely to the other side! Not a fucking scratch! He went to maximum popularity in, like, the two minutes it took him to make the jump and get back up here again! I mean, how cool is that?!"_

 _Incredibly cool, Ered knew. Even cooler than all the stuff she'd done to stay on top of the crowd. This was a direct challenge to her reputation, even if the poor guy hadn't meant it. LEred didn't particularly wan to kick anyone to the kerb, especially someone brave enough to attempt something Ered hadn't even considered. But she was determined not to be just another has been with a15 minute shot of glory and fame._

 _"Which one is he?" She asked, her eyes narrowing. Her friend realised what Ered was going for, and nervously decided not to intervene._

 _"Over there." He quickly pointed her towards a group of kids standing near the roof edge. "Short, brown hair."_

 _Ered spotted a kid who matched that description and pointed. "Him?"_

 _Her buddy nodded. Ered flipped her from under her foot and tucked it under her arm and went to go find her new rival._

 _He was standing amongst a group of other kids semi-near to the rooftop's edge. He was short, and had longish dark hair and was chewing on something, a candy cane?_

 _He looked up towards her as she approached, and the crowd slowly fell silent to listen._

 _"Hey." Ered said, keeping her tone casual, but firm. "I'm Ered Miller. I heard about your stunt yesterday. That's pretty cool."_

 _The kid grinned. "Billy." He said, extending a hand. "Billy Nikssilp. But people call me Snake." Ered gave his hand a small slap as a high five, but it was an empty gesture._

 _"Man, Ered you should have been here yesterday!" One of the other kids chipped in. "We were all like, begging him not to, it's a really dangerous stunt, but bam, the dude just straight up jumps it! Didn't even scrape a knee when he landed. It was awesome!"_

 _"Sure sounds it." Ered said, her eyes sweeping coldly over the grinning new kid._

 _"Where were you yesterday?"_

 _Great. The last thing she needed was another blow when her reputation was already on the rocks._

 _"Oh, my dads refused to let me go out until I finished my homework." Ered rolled her eyes, even though she had been grateful of her dad's help with algebra. "It was really annoying."_

 _Billy (Ered refused to call him by something that made him sound even cooler) laughed. "Homework? Now that is lame!" A couple of other kids laughed, and Ered tried to join in, even though her gut was churning with anger. Not only had Billy just damaged her social standing even further, he had just called her dads lame! That was not cool in Ered's books. But, although Billy spoke with a casual, laughing tone, there was something in his eyes, something cold which screamed 'I smell oppertunity'._

 _Not on her watch._

 _"Yeah, well," Ered tried to keep her tone as casual as possible. "If I had been here yesterday I would have managed that jump you did easily. I mean, I've done way more than twelve feet in my time." Ered had no idea what she was saying or why she was saying it. Jumping the gap on a rickety skateboard! She must be insane! But deep down, Ered knew she would do all sorts of insane things to stay cool._

 _"Oh really?" Billy raised an eyebrow. Ered knew he could sense the stench of jealousy coming from her. "Then why don't you?"_

 _"Huh?" Ered looked down at Billy. His smile was practically gone. In its place was a challenge. A challenge that would not go unaccepted._

 _"Jump the gap." Billy said in a low voice. "I'm sure you'll do fine." He flipped up his own skateboard. It was longer than her's, with smaller wheels for better balance, and plain jet black in hue. It was obviously far more suited to this jump than Ered's old board was. "Of course, on the other hand, the jump is near impossible with that old thing." He gestured towards her skateboard. "Oh well, your call."_

 _"Oh, it's on bitch." Ered muttered. She ran a hand over her skateboard's surface. She had had it for years, a present for her eleventh birthday. She had almost outgrown it, and it had become a little unsteady. But still determined to win over this annoying new kid._

 _She turned and walked over to the tallest ramp on the rooftop, one that practically overlooked the entire city. The downside of the ramp faced the roof's edge, where Billy and a group of onlookers stood. beyond than, the jump which would bring her back her reputation and wipe that smug smile off Billy's face. She climbed up the ramp and balanced her skateboard at the top, preparing to ride down. She looked down and bit her lip. Apart from regulation kneepads and elbow pads under her jeans and jacket, she had no form of protection from the fall if something wen wrong, not even a helmet. She took a deep breath and prepared._

 _All of the kids on the roof had noticed Ered about to make the jump and were now gathering around to watch, shouting comments of encouragement and fear._

 _"Don't do it Ered, you'll be crushed!"_

 _"It's not worth it!"_

 _"If anyone can do it, it's you!"_

 _OK, maybe less encouragement, more fear. Even though she was still boiling with anger, Ered felt fear begin to bubble up inside her. This was crazy, this was madness, it was going to get her killed!_

 _"Oh, it's on bitch." Ered muttered. She ran a hand over her skateboard's surface. She had had it for years, a present for her eleventh birthday. She had almost outgrown it, and it had become a little unsteady. But still determined to win over this annoying new kid._

 _She turned and walked over to the tallest ramp on the rooftop, one that practically overlooked the entire city. The downside of the ramp faced the roof's edge, where Billy and a group of onlookers stood. beyond than, the jump which would bring her back her reputation and wipe that smug smile off Billy's face. She climbed up the ramp and balanced her skateboard at the top, preparing to ride down. She looked down and bit her lip. Apart from regulation kneepads and elbow pads under her jeans and jacket, she had no form of protection from the fall if something wen wrong, not even a helmet. She took a deep breath and prepared._

 _All of the kids on the roof had noticed Ered about to make the jump and were now gathering around to watch, shouting comments of encouragement and fear._

 _"Don't do it Ered, you'll be crushed!"_

 _"It's not worth it!"_

 _"If anyone can do it, it's you!"_

 _OK, maybe less encouragement, more fear. Even though she was still boiling with anger, Ered felt fear begin to bubble up inside her. This was crazy, this was madness, it was going to get her killed!_

 _Ered's mind was racing so fast that she scarcely noticed that she had already kicked off and was racing down the ramp at top speed. With a surge of panic, she steadied herself, and kicked slightly against the ramp to try and gain speed. She heard a few screams and cheers as she flew down the ramp. Trying to centre her balance, Ered shot off the rooftop, soaring through the air. For a few moments, she felt on top of the world, like the coolest kid ever. She really thought she could do this!_

 _The kids on the rooftop watched her, first in excitement as Ered flew through the air. Then horror as they watched her missclculte her height and crash into the wall. She was bigger than Billy had been and that extra kick had actually restricted her speed. Ered should have known this, she was an experienced skater after all, but being so angry at Billy and nervous about the stunt that she hadn't been thinking clearly. She smashed into the side of the building, board snapping in two with the impact. Ered hit the wall with a sickening crack and fell, all the way down to the ground. The kids on the rooftop peered anxiously downward. Ered lay on the ground below, unconscious, limbs at odd angles. It was a miracle she hadn't died._

...

 _When Ered woke up in the hospital, she was very panicked, despite David's best efforts to calm her down. She demanded to know what happened at the skate park after she fell._

 _Someone had called an ambulance for her. The doctors had been very concerned about the dangerous illegal skate park. They had called in an inspector, who had examined the skate park, and demanded it be demolished. The kids had tried to protest against this, but when the first ramp went down, Billy had been injured in the face by falling shrapnel. Not only had Ered failed miserably to impress with her stunt, she had gotten the skatpark shut down, and gotten one of the coolest kids injured. She knew her bonew would heal, but her reputation was beyond repair._

 _Ered didn't feel very cool when she arrived in the ward. But she was instantly greeted by a little green haired girl with a broken leg who seemed to think that she was the coolest kid alive. A bald, skinny boy who seemed keen to impress her with magic tricks, which she slowly began to appreciate. Ered knee that she wouldn't be welcome again anywhere near the now demolished skate park. But slowly, in this crazy ward of crazy children, she began to feel at home._

 **Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed :)**


	31. Just fuck off David

**Hi, I'm back. I know it's been about four months since the last update, and I really don't have a valid excuse. I had a tricky adjustment to college and really needed a break for my mental health and personal life, which is all better now, soo, yeah. Here's the next chapter, sorry it's so dry in comparison to what's coming later, and I know I have kept you waiting, but stick with it, I've got a good ending in mind for this story. Thanks for everyone who's stuck around this long! (Plus followers and favourites are in the 90's what the frick?! Thank you guys so much!) Enjoy the chapter :)**

 **Oh, and I put up new cover art for this story, it should be visible, but this site really f*cks around with image quality, so the actual full picture is on my fanart Instagram: steampunkwilson if anybody wants to view it in full.**

"So anyway, then I said to David, you'd better to be ready to clean up after Apollo 11 goes off in there!" Space Kid was bouncing up and down in his bed with the excitement of telling the story to his parents and sister. As usual, they all seemed very disinterested in his storytelling, but at least he seemed happy doing it.

Dolph gave a small sigh as he watched his fellow patient and his family interact. It was at times like these that he couldn't help but miss his own parents. Even if his father was oppressive and dismissive of his true passions, he still missed the dynamic they had built for themselves. His father would come home after Dolph was done with his schooling for the day (and put away his art supplies) and they would eat dinner and talk about his father's day. Despite his age, Dolph was fascinated by all the stories of war and military taining, even if they scared him a little.

Everyone around the ward looked like they were having a pretty good time with their parents, or at least each other. Ered, Nikki and Neil were hanging out in her corner of the ward, Harrison was talking to Nerris's parents, with her sitting on the edge of his bed, Nurf's sister had come by for a visit. The only one who didn't seem to be enjoying themselves was Max, but he never really enjoyed himself anyway.

Dolph looked towards the door lazily, wanting to get up and go somewhere. He was bored, but due to his recent injury, he had to stay put.

Then someone came through the door, someone who looked confused an concerned, someone who certainly hadn't been here before. Most people who looked up when she came in looked away pretty much instantly. Space Kid glanced up and stopped telling his story for a second.

"Who's she?" He asked aloud. As usual, new visitors and no new patients were a sort of a novelty among the residents of Children's Ward 1.

Dolph examined this woman with a frown. She was familiar somehow-

He gasped.

"Mama!" He exclaimed, sitting bolt upright from his usual slouch. He spoke so loudly that Harrison, Nerris and her parents looked round, as did Space Kid's ensemble. The woman's eyes sought him out, widened, an her face broke into a smile.

"Dolph?" She said softly, coming closer. "My, my little boy, you're so..." Without warning, she darted forwards and hugged him, way tighter than what Dolph was used to, but this was his mother! He hadn't seen her in person in over a year! Dolph clung to her tightly, until the pain became too much for his mid-section.

"Mama, ouch, you're hurting-" She let go almost as quickly as she had latched onto him.

"I'm sorry Dolph." She said hurridly. "I just... I couldn't wait to see you again, I, your father, he called me as soon as he realised that maybe you'd be-"

"Papa?" Dolph said. "He called you? He knows you're here?" She nodded quickly, taking a seat next to his bed.

"Yes." She gave a soft, but nervous smile. "He's had my number for a while, for emergencies, and he told me that you were in the hospital, and I would have come sooner, if I had, well I had a lot of things going on and, when he told me about your fight-"

Dolph looked down at his bedclothes, blushing slightly.

"He told you about that too?" He asked in a quiet voice. He had tried to play it off as cool in front of the other kids in the party, but deep down, Dolph had been quite ashamed of himself, yelling at his father like that. He knew what he had told him was true, what he really felt, but he also knew his father shouldn't have to know things like that. It wasn't Dolph's place to disobey his orders, even if he loved painting more than other 'manly' things.

"He did." His mother confirmed for him in a quiet voice. "We spoke for a long time and... decided on something new, which we think might be best for you." Dolph frowned as his mother spoke. "We decided that... how would you like to live with me, Dolph? Rather than the army base?" She gave a small, hesitant sigh. "I know that I haven't really been, around for a while, just on the phone and then, I wasn't, but I had things, problems and I... I needed to figure things out, Dolph, but I'm ready now, I'm ready to... be your mother again." She looked down at him, a hopeful smile on her face.

Dolph frowned. He did miss his mother, constantly, and he was so glad to see her again, but after so long, could he really just accept her? As his mother again?

"Why?" He said in a soft voice, frowning slightly. His mother looked at him and he looked up at her. "Why now, after so long? I get that you... needed time, but why didn't you call me? I had to suffer through life there, so alone with no other people my age, through Papa constantly condemning my art, he even broke the easel you gave me, and all it took for anyone to notice me, what I was going through, was being shot!" He clenched his small hands into fists, nails digging into his palms. "I was in pain, not just because of the bullet! Because... because I finally knew what other kids were like. What they had been doing while I was shut up in a military base with books and paints for company! It hurt to know, what I had missed out on!"

Dolph breathed out harshly, overwhelmed by everything he had said. He had known that he was unhappy living with his father, but his mother didn't deserve to know everything he thought of his lifestyle.

After a long pause, Dolph felt a brief touch on his shoulder, a hand. It was his mother, and she looked upset. He sighed.

"Sorry Mama. I shouldn't have said things like that."

She gave him a soft smile.

"No, you're right Dolph. You're allowed to not... be happy, I know that better than most, but... you deserve to know the truth." She sighed. "You're my son too." She smiled down at him. "You know your father and I aren't, exactly together anymore, don't you?"

Dolph nodded, not exactly liking where this was going.

"Well, while I was... in rehabilitation, I met someone, well, lots of people, but there was one particular someone. I really like him and..." She looked away from her son for a second. "Dolph, you're going to have a step father. And... a new brother, or sister."

She looked quickly towards him to check his reaction.

Dolph felt himself stiffen all over, but he wasn't sure why. He knew that his parents weren't exactly married anymore, he wasn't sure if they'd filed for a divorce or anything like that, but his mother had made it clear that she couldn't be with his father. And he had accepted that. But now, another family that he could be a part of? Dolph was tired of having to hide his art, hide who he really was. He was ready for some change in his routine after he left the hospital, whenever that was.

"OK." He said, and looked up at his mother with a smile.

"What?"

"I said OK, I'll live with you and... whoever this new man is. And the new baby. I could try be a good older brother." His mother's face broke into a relieved smile.

"Thank you Dolph." She said brightly. "I'm so glad, I've missed being a part of your life!" She glanced towards the sketchbook which was sticking out from underneath Dolph's pillow. "Now, I want to see what drawings you've been able to do while I was gone." Dolph blushed slightly, no-one ever asked to see his artwork. He reached for the book.

"Well, this I did on my first day in the hospital, so it's a little wonky, but you can see the shading work..."

...

For David, visiting day was one of his favourite days of the week. The kids got a nice change of pace from each other's company, parents often brought gifts. Even kids whose parents didn't show up could have a nice time hanging out with their friends. David glanced over all the kids who were laughing and chatting. Everyone was enjoying themselves. Everyone except...

One kid all lonely and left out.

Oh Max...

David gestured to Gwen to take over keeping an eye on things, and she nodded back at him, going to chat to Nikki's mother. David slowly and subtly headed over to the window side of the ward where Max was slouched against the windowpane.

"Hey Max." David said as he approached. Max glanced up and frowned.

"Oh it's you." He muttered. David sighed and sat down next to him. Max shifted away, and David didn't copy.

"Why the long face Max?" David asked with his trademark smile. "You go home tomorrow, remember? No more injections!"

"Yeah, that's cool I guess." Max muttered. "Just leave me alone David. I'm fine."

"You don't look so fine to me, Max." David glanced towards Nikki and Neil, who were still chatting with Ered a few feet away. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Max looking too, but the ten year old looked away the moment David glanced back at him.

"You know, Max. I'm so glad that you made such awesome friends here at Campbell Hospital! Lots of kids come here looking for treatment, and leave with a new best friend for life! Just look at Harrison and Nerris, they found each other and now he's considering staying with them for a while! They know how much they mean to each other, and just because you're leaving doesn't mean that you have to leave your friends behind, you know." He smiled down at Max, who shrugged, rubbing his elbows. His bandages were ready to come off now, but the short sleeve pyjamas Max had to wear seemed to make him want to keep them on. David had a faint idea why.

"Are you ready to leave yet, Max?" He asked, his tone becoming slightly more serious. "I don't want to see you leave your friends on such bad terms!"

Max scowled.

"Fuck off David!" He snapped. "Like I saic, I'm fine, I don't need friends, I don't need you, I don't need this shit hospital! Just go back to your dumb office and sign my paperwork so I can leave already! Leave me the fuck alone!" He stood up and marched across the ward to his bed, and jumped onto it, lying on his back and glaring at the celling. David sighed, and with a quick smile in Nikki and Neil's direction, hurried off to his office. Gwen watched him go, and with a quick excuse towards Nikki's mother, followed him in.

"What was that about?" She asked. David was standing in the middle of the room, breathing deeply. He didn't reply, but went straight to the record book lying on the now spotless desk, and opened it. "David? What's Max upset about?"

"Nothing Gwen." David said quickly. "He's fine, I just... I need to sort something out." He traced the pages of the book with his finger, muttering to himself. "No, no, not... Ah-ha! Found it!" He shut the book and went over to his bunk, grabbing a fleece and removing his doctor's coat. "Hold down the fort for me, Gwen, I have an errand to run!"

"David, you're on the clock!"

"I haven't had a day off in months, Gwen, nobody will notice or care if I'm gone for a few hours! Remember to give the kids their lunch!" He threw on his fleece and exited the office at a brisk pace.

Gwen was left, looking at the crumpled doctor's coat that David had always worn with such pride. She picked it up and smoothed it out, removing the nametag and placing it on the desk.

"So this is what it feels like to be the level headed nurse." She muttered to herself. "David, I hope you know what you're doing!"

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one will have a revelation that most people have probably been waiting for, so I'll have that out as soon as I can.**


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